Deception, duplicity and self-destruction: it is like a Thomas Hardy novel being played out in the England dressing room right now. Published: 7:25AM GMT 26 Feb 2010
Former friends: Wayne Bridge and John Terry
together in England colours
Photo: GETTY IMAGES
Now, literary purists might point out that in Hardy news of deception tends to be delivered by a letter slipped under a doormat rather than on the front pages of a Sunday tabloid – and that, in any case, Wayne is not a name generally associated with the great man's works.
But, just like a Hardy novel, the overwhelming urge you get on observing such an easily avoided set of events is a wish to intervene, to shake the participants by the collar and tell them not to be so stupid.
Not since Alan Shearer chose Newcastle over Manchester United because Alex Ferguson was not sufficiently deferential, and thus missed out on a cabinet full of medals, has a footballer taken such wrong-headed umbrage as Wayne Bridge did this week.
The Manchester City defender said he did not want to be considered for England's forthcoming friendly with Egypt or indeed the World Cup.
The prospect of sharing a dressing room with the man who so publicly cuckolded him had made his position "untenable" and "potentially divisive", he said.
During the John Terry saga, Bridge largely held the public sympathy. To carry on, to insist that, since he was not in the wrong he should continue to play unhindered by concern, would have cemented his position of favour with the sporting public.
Instead, his spectacularly self-destructive fit of pique will have had even the most understanding scratching their heads. Fabio Capello had already indicated that the player would be his left back of choice in the absence of the injured Ashley Cole. That was some invitation.
If Cole did not recover from his broken ankle and had to sit out the World Cup in his bachelor flat with only his mobile phone for company, Bridge was in pole position for the No 3 shirt. He has now turned that chance down.
So let us for a moment cast aside all footballing logic and conjure up the prospect that England actually find themselves on July 11 in the World Cup final against Brazil.
At the end of extra time, the scores are level and, with Bridge watching on television, the final penalty in the shoot-out is about to be taken by the man who, if he scores, will become a national hero overnight ... Leighton Baines.
At what point do you imagine Bridge might feel that giving way to temporary hurt back in February was a tactical error?
One of my first employers used to reprimand lovelorn members of his staff with the swift rejoinder that they should "leave their private life on the doorstep".
It is an aphorism with which Capello would agree. The England coach must be wondering why luck has deserted him at this crucial point in the World Cup cycle. If it were not bad enough that three of his first-choice back four have been struck down with tournament-threatening injury, he now learns that because of the behaviour of the fourth, one of his substitutes wishes to be excused duty.
England's failure at the last World Cup has been widely post-rationalised as the fault of the court of Marie Antoinettes encamped in Baden-Baden absorbing too much of the players' attentions.
Far from learning from that, things appear to have got worse. Now it seems the manager's selection policy is being dictated by the consequences of a WAG love triangle. Though love might be too elevated a term for this particular affair.
Mind, those who watched his performance for City against Stoke during the week could legitimately conclude that Bridge has done Capello a favour.
Which actually makes his decision all the more incomprehensible: if anyone can play as badly as that and still be regarded as worthy of selection, they really ought to bite off the hand that proffers opportunity rather than chewing off their own nose to spite their face.