London: John Terry is clinging to the England armband, but only just.
Following the latest unsavoury allegations about Terry's private life, the Football Association (FA) is split over whether he should continue.
The countdown has begun on Terry's time as captain. If Terry is forced to resign, as seems likely, the armband would pass to either Wayne Rooney, the most popular player in the dressing room, or Rio Ferdinand, the present vice-captain.
I like Terry, the one natural leader in the England dressing room, but this really is an embarrassment too far.
It's time for him to stand down. Unless Terry somehow pulls off his greatest ever piece of defending, surviving the firestorm of headlines hurtling his way, then it would be little surprise if England were led out by Rooney for their first World Cup game against the United States in Rustenburg on June 12.
This weekend will be a brutal one for Terry and the FA. The game's governors are torn. Some members of the FA hierarchy want Terry either to relinquish the captaincy or for Fabio Capello to strip him of the honour.
Other members of the FA believe it is a decision solely for Capello, who has stood by his captain during past indiscretions.
Ian Watmore, the FA chief executive, said before Christmas, during the last wave of allegations against Terry, that any decision would be up to Capello and the England coaching staff.
"It's their call on all matters to do with the playing side and the captaincy,'' stressed Watmore.
Watmore, though, has never experienced the whirlwind about to rattle the FA windows and lift tiles off the roof.
Momentum builds up, columnists weigh in, point-scoring politicians leap on the bandwagon, and eventually somebody falls on their sword.
The daily headlines will continue to question his fitness to lead. In Fleet Street parlance, this story has legs and will run and run. There are those within the FA who never thought Terry a suitable candidate to captain England anyway.
Battle-lines
Old battle-lines are being redrawn. With the World Cup only five months away and a bid to host the 2018 tournament in full swing, Terry's alleged misdemeanours will mortify the FA.
The moment the injunction was lifted on Friday on claims that Terry conducted an extra-marital affair with Vanessa Perroncel, the former girlfriend of Wayne Bridge, the FA was plunged into the sort of crisis that it had sought to avoid ever since the dark days of the Dentist's Chair, Hoddle's crazed comments and Faria Alam, the Soho Square typist with the tryst-list.
Under Watmore and Triesman, the FA has actually become a calmer place. So had the England dressing room under Capello until these latest claims against Terry.
The Chelsea centre-half may defend himself against all the allegations but the stigma will remain.
It's only football, hardly a bastion of morality, but certain standards are still expected of the England captain.
Terry's standing with the dressing room will inevitably be undermined by the allegation that he had an affair with a fellow-international's then girlfriend.
The dressing-room dynamic, which has been particularly strong under Capello, would be threatened. If Bridge announced his international retirement, arguing that he could not play in the same side as Terry then England would be further damaged.
