Terry will captain England in Tuesday night's friendly with Sweden at Wembley when they aim to end a 43-year wait for a win over the Scandinavians. It is the first time the 30-year-old will have played for his country since he was accused of racially abusing Anton Ferdinand at Loftus Road last month, allegations Terry strenuously denies. When he faced the media on Monday, Terry was prevented from speaking about the case for fear of jeopardising police and FA investigations. However, plenty of famous names have been in touch, although Terry refused to confirm whether Jose Mourinho was amongst them. "People, players and managers from all across the world have been on the phone," he confirmed. "They have been very supportive of me but it is unfair to talk about individuals." It is clearly not the first time Terry has gone into a game from a chaotic background, yet it rarely seems to affect him. "It is important to deal with your ups and downs, which I have done throughout my career," he said. "One thing I have always loved doing is playing football. I did it in the park with my friends when I was younger. It is what I dreamed of as a boy. No-one can ever take that away from me." Terry said he felt it was important that he "fronted up", hence his appearance at the traditional captain's pre-match briefing. However, he was focused more on explaining just why he believes Saturday's 1-0 win over world champions Spain - which Terry watched from the bench as an unused substitute - underlined how much progress England have made since their woeful performances at last year's World Cup in South Africa. "Being honest, I couldn't envisage reaching this point when we were knocked out of the World Cup," said Terry. "Also, I couldn't envisage where the younger players are. "Maybe after that the younger players thought, 'you know what, we have got a chance'. "It only takes the manager to offer them it and it breeds confidence throughout the Premier League. "That probably wasn't the case three or four years ago."
