A look at Gary Lineker's four sons as BBC presenter challenges Elon Musk about threatening Twitter messages

In the words of Gary Lineker, the last weekend has been ‘a surreal few days’, as the BBC Sport presenter has not only returned to Match of the Day following his initial suspension, but also challenged Twitter CEO Elon Musk after his son received threatening messages on the platform.

After Gary was reinstated to MOTD on Monday, he shared screenshots to social media showing a user calling his eldest son George, a 'mug' and suggesting he should be 'burned at the stake' after he jumped to defend his father's actions.

Questions surrounding the leading football pundit's place on the weekend morning show arose after he compared Britain's migrant policy and the language used by politicians to that of 1930s Germany.

While Gary is often outspoken, previously commenting on the human rights of Qatar at the 2022 World Cup and rivalling Brexit, his latest comments about refugees and migrants meant the BBC had told him to ‘take a step back’ from MOTD until ‘an agreement [was] reached about his social media use’.

After the news broke on Friday evening, a wave of solidarity for Gary swept across social media platforms, with the likes of Ian Wright, Alan Shearer and Alex Scott choosing not to commentate on Match of the Day on Sunday.

Ian Wright tweeted: “Everybody knows what Match of the Day means to me, but I’ve told the BBC I won’t be doing it tomorrow. Solidarity.”

However, come Monday morning it was announced that Gary Lineker, who has the longest tenure of any MOTD presenter, would be back in the chair next weekend after the suspension.

The former football player and now commentator said on Twitter: “After a surreal few days, I’m delighted that we have navigated a way through this. I want to thank you all for the incredible support, particularly my colleagues at BBC Sport, for the remarkable show of solidarity. 

“Football is a team game but their backing was overwhelming. I have been presenting sport on the BBC for almost 3 decades and am immeasurably proud to work with the best and fairest broadcaster in the world. I cannot wait to get back in the MOTD chair on Saturday.”

Before signing off, Gary still highlighted the problems facing refugees fleeing their countries.

In addition to thousands of fans, fellow commentators and influencers voicing their solidarity behind Gary Lineker, the MOTD presenter’s family too shared their opinion - PeopleWorld takes a look at Gary’s four sons he has with his first wife Michelle Cockayne:

George Lineker

Prior to Monday morning's breaking news, Gary’s eldest son George had stated over the weekend in an article for The Mirror, that his dad would return to MOTD if he was asked, but he would ‘not apologise’.

Despite a seemingly positive end with Gary being reinstated to MOTD and George suggesting he had countless happy messages on Instagram, the 31-year-old questioned the fallout on Twitter.

George said: "Social media's mad isn't it. Over the last few days, on insta - never had so many nice messages. On Twitter - never had so much abuse," before his father Tweeted the nasty messages and called out Elon Musk, asking if it was 'acceptable'.

31-year-old George went to school at £34,000-a-year Charterhouse, and also revealed in previous interviews that he was ‘useless’ at football, cancelling out following in his father’s footsteps. Instead he works as co-founder of Your Business Number, providing numbers to entrepreneurs.

When George was two months old, he was diagnosed with myeloid leukaemia, a rare form of blood cancer, and was treated at London’s Great Ormond Street Hospital for seven months.

Gary and George have since raised awareness for blood cancer after the eldest son beat his 10-20% chance of survival, and returned to GOSH last year.

Harry Lineker

Michelle and Gary tied the knot in 1986 and in 1993 they welcomed their second son Harry.

The 29-year-old now works as a producer for GoalHanger Films, which has created shows such as Wayne Rooney: The Man Behind the Goals, Anthony Joshua: A Legend in the Making and Behind Kevin Pieterson.

The London-based film company specialises in sports documentaries, and was created by Harry’s father Gary in 2014; while Harry was filming the World Cup in Sierra Leone, he was attacked after fans stormed the pitch.

Tobias Lineker

While Harry works with his father in TV and George runs his own business, Tobias showed hopes of following the footballing footsteps as he was once a member of Chelsea’s Youth Academy.

However, after studying at Wellington College and Oxford Brookes University, Tobias became a DJ who plays across the world.

The now 27-year-old played at Adobe in the Park in Finsbury Park last summer alongside Idris Elba, and also was on the set list for Ministry of Sound.

Angus Lineker

The baby of the Lineker clan is Angus who has gone on to work as a Business Development Executive for Rokstone Sport and Prize Indemnity after going to school at Millfield and Oxford Brookes.

Angus graduated with a BA in Business and Marketing Management and dabbles in golf according to his Instagram.