• ‘If he needs a holiday I will give him a holiday’
• ‘He continues to play a very good game’

Carlo Ancelotti has cleared the way for John Terry to take a break from playing for Chelsea by saying that if “he needs to have a holiday I will give him holiday”, following allegations about his captain’s private life.

Ancelotti insisted after Chelsea dropped two points in the title race by drawing 1-1 at Hull City last night that the furore surrounding Terry had not become a distraction for his team. But he left open the possibility of the defender flying to Dubai in 10 days’ time and missing the FA Cup fifth-round tie against Cardiff City to visit his wife, Toni.

She is in the Gulf state reportedly considering whether to end the marriage following allegations that her husband had an affair with Vanessa Perroncel, the former girlfriend of the England left-back Wayne Bridge. Terry’s position as England captain is in the balance because of the matter.

Ancelotti said: “This is an issue for me and John Terry; it’s not your problem. You will see the line-up for Cardiff. If he needs to have a holiday I will give him a holiday. If he doesn’t need a holiday he will play against Cardiff.” It is understood that Terry, who was booed by Hull fans whenever he touched the ball last night, does wish to make the trip but he is conscious that it is his manager’s decision.

Terry should discover whether he will retain the England captaincy when meeting Capello on Friday. Ancelotti refused to reveal whether he has had a specific discussion with Terry regarding the matter. “No. I don’t like to speak about this,” he said. “This is not a question that I want to speak [about] here.”

Despite what was an uneven performance from his team, which included his captain being partly at fault for Steven Mouyokolo’s 30th-minute opener from a corner, Ancelotti denied the affair was affecting his players, who equalised through Didier Drogba shortly before half-time but wasted the chance to move four points clear of Manchester United at the top of the Premier League.

He said: “No, I don’t think so because the atmosphere is the same, it’s not changed. Nothing can disturb our concentration – the Chelsea team is focused [for] every game. Sometimes we play good football and sometimes we have more difficulty but the concentration is always on top.

“For him [Terry] nothing changed – he continues to play a very good game, every game he is living a very good moment, he is doing every game the best.”

Chelsea’s next game is Sunday’s visit to Stamford Bridge by Arsenal. Ancelotti knows that if Manchester United can defeat struggling Portsmouth, who are bottom, the previous day, Sir Alex Ferguson’s team will lead by a point. That will place the emphasis back on Chelsea to beat Arsenal, who are desperate for a win to maintain their own title challenge.

Ancelotti, though, denied the draw at the KC Stadium had been two points dropped. “I think we are in a very good position now,” he said. “We’re in the top [of the league], we know very well that Manchester is a very good opponent [and] it will be a long race until the end of the season. We weren’t at our best [tonight] but it was a tough game.

“I think Hull played a very good game, with quality. It wasn’t our best but I think it is a good result, we don’t have to be disappointed because sometimes this can happen. We have two points [lead] at the top of the table. So we have to look forward.”

Drogba marked his return following his participation for Ivory Coast in the Africa Cup of Nations with a goal from a free-kick. “It is an important moment and we need to have all the players in condition until the end of the season,” added Ancelotti. “Now every game is very, very important. Every game can decide the future of the season.”

Hull’s manager, Phil Brown, was happy with a valuable point as he fights to avoid relegation. He said: “I was disappointed with the goal we conceded. But we played some great football too, we put them under pressure — no doubt. We fully deserved a point and maybe all three.”

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Wigan sack striker Marlon King after he is convicted of sexually assaulting woman and breaking her nose

A Premier League footballer was jailed for 18 months today and sacked by his club for breaking a young woman’s nose after she objected to him groping her bottom in a London nightclub.

Marlon King “decked” a slightly built student after being repeatedly “cold-shouldered” by women in the Soho Revue bar last December, where he went to celebrate his wife’s third pregnancy and scoring a match-winning goal hours earlier.

Southwark crown court heard he had boasted to his 20-year-old victim “I’m out of your league love, I’m a multi-millionaire” when she told him to stop touching her. He punched her with such force that two other revellers – one of them holding on to his arm – were knocked over.

The 29-year-old Wigan Athletic striker, a father of three from Waltham Cross, Hertfordshire, claimed he was a victim of mistaken identity and drafted in his wife, Julie, and older brother Dean Everett to testify in his favour. But after hearing evidence from a string of other witnesses, including a Sky Sports journalist who saw King in the club and a football coach who insisted he was the assailant, the jury decided he was lying.

He was convicted by a majority of 10 to 2 of sexually assaulting the 20-year-old and causing actual bodily harm.

The judge, Nicholas Loraine-Smith, told the player that in addition to the jail sentence he would have to register as a sex offender for seven years, pay £3,125 compensation to his victim and £1,800 prosecution costs.

After delivering the guilty verdict, the jury was told that since the age of 17 King had been in the dock on seven other occasions and had spent time in jail for receiving a stolen £30,000 BMW.

He had been accused of dishonesty, drink driving and other motoring offences, and violence, including common assaults on two women in 2003. Three years later he was convicted of threatening behaviour after slapping another woman on her bottom and head and then spitting at her when police arrived.

King showed no reaction as he was convicted, but sat open-mouthed as the judge told him it was clear he had drunk “more than you should have” on the evening in question.

“You approached those young women who wanted nothing to do with you. You touched them on their faces and, as the jury have just found by their verdict, touch the complainant on her backside in a way that amounted to a sexual assault. Although they and others told you politely and firmly to leave her alone you weren’t prepared to be ignored.

“Eventually and after some time you simply lost your temper and punched her hard in the face. You broke her nose, and that can still just be seen, and you cut her lip. Thereafter you tried your best to avoid any responsibility for what you had done, and you were helped in this by the nightclub for whom you were such a good customer.”

The judge said the club had pretended to call the police and allowed him to leave. “You have shown not a hint of shame at your disgraceful and arrogant behaviour. Furthermore it is not your first criminal offence, nor your first for violence.”

Referring to King’s £35,000 wage packet and the fact his contract would be revoked, costing him more than £1m, the judge added: “I appreciate this will cost you an enormous amount of money, but it is difficult to be sympathetic when you were boasting about your earnings in the way you did.”

After the guilty verdict, the Wigan Athletic chairman, Dave Whelan, confirmed the club had decided to sack King.

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