Much-loved BBC presenter Gabby Logan had to leave her hosting duties midway through tonight’s Match of the Day to attend to a ‘family emergency’.
Logan started the show as was scheduled after a busy night of midweek action in the Premier League, involving eight matches – in which a total of 26 goals were scored – up and down the country.
The 52-year-old appeared in fine form as she oversaw analysis of Tottenham’s 3-2 defeat to Bournemouth in the Match of the Day studio, alongside regular pundits Danny Murphy and Stephen Warnock.
She then introduced viewers to highlights of Manchester City’s 1-1 draw with Brighton, in which Kaoru Mitoma struck in the second half to silence a sparse Etihad crowd.
But when the programme returned to the studio, Logan had been replaced in the host’s chair by BBC colleague Mark Chapman.
‘We’ll talk about the game in just a moment,’ explained Chapman, who had been leading BBC Radio 5 Live’s coverage of Wednesday’s Premier League action on the airwaves earlier in the evening.
‘Sadly, Gabby has a family emergency that she’s had to rush off and deal with so she’s gone to do that and I’ve come from the radio to finish the show.
‘We will look at what happened in that Man City game right now.’
While the exact details of the emergency were not disclosed, Logan – who has worked as a broadcaster for the BBC for nearly two decades – was immediately flooded with messages of love and support across social media.
Viewers also praised Chapman for the professionalism with which he stood in at the last minute to take over the reins from Logan, who co-hosted the 2025 Sports Personality of the Year awards last month.
‘MOTD host changed part way through the show, never seen that. Guess they were lucky that Mark Chapman was still in the building after his radio show,’ @neddthomas wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.
‘In all seriousness, hope that Gabby Logan’s family emergency isn’t serious and all is alright. Well handled by Chappers.’
Another viewer, @DaveWilde174904, tweeted: ‘Watching MOTD hope everything is OK with Gabby Logan… Mark Chapman been on radio and then filling in on MOTD. Really professional by Chappers, I think he’s a great presenter.’
‘Mark Chapman is wildly underrated. An absolutely brilliant broadcaster – proving it yet again tonight. Best wishes to Gabby Logan, hopefully the family emergency isn’t owt traumatic,’ a third viewer, @scribblingL, said.
Logan hosted BBC’s Final Score programme between 2009 and 2013 and has covered some of the most high-profile events of the sporting calendar, including the London Marathon, BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year and the most recent Olympic Games in Paris.
When she was confirmed to replace Gary Lineker on Match of the Day for the start of the 2025/26 season, along with co-hosts Kelly Cates and Chapman, Logan said she felt an ‘enormous responsibility’ on her shoulders.
‘It’s always a real moment [sitting in the chair] because it has such history,’ she explained when the news broke last January.
‘It’s still so relevant to so many people now and talked about in a landscape where TVs changed so much.
‘There’s an enormous responsibility to make sure we continue to evolve while at the same time respecting the traditions of Match of the Day.
‘People want to see the goals, they want to see the incidents, they want to see the moments everyone’s talking about, so while we can tinker at the edges, the core is the football.’
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