Gabby Logan has opened up about when she feared for her TV career after being brutally sidelined by her former boss. The esteemed Welsh presenter is a forefront figure at the BBC and has recently been announced as one of the three new hosts to fill Gary Lineker's boots on Match of the Day from next season. In addition to fronting the Premier League highlights show, Logan is also the leading presenter for the BBC's Six Nations rugby coverage, with nearly three decades under her belt as a celebrated sportscaster. However, the path to success wasn't always smooth for the 51-year-old. She recalled a time when her confidence took a hit and her future seemed uncertain in television. Back during the 2006 FIFA World Cup, in what could have been a pivotal moment in her career, her then-ITV boss decided to "demote" her. Instead of her scheduled role presenting England's World Cup group matches, Logan found herself reassigned to less prominent games – a move that shook her self-assurance even before being cut from the team entirely and harshly told to "don't come back" after she planned a short break mid-tournament. Recalling the challenging period on Kate Thornton's White Wine Question Time podcast, Logan said: "I think I had a rough ride in my early thirties in my career, and I can't believe that's nearly 20 years ago. At the time, I thought it was going to be the end of my career." Discussing career ups and downs, Logan recounted: "When I was leaving ITV and given another chance by the BBC... because even in my early 30s, I felt I'd already had this really long career and I'd done loads of great stuff. I'd been at Sky to start off with and went to ITV and did loads of brilliant things. "But I kind of felt I was maybe going to have to shift and do something completely different, because I had a boss that wasn't really into me and wanted to slightly demote me. He took me off a World Cup in 2006." Opening up about the particularly tough time, Logan added: "My kids were a year old and I was flying off to Germany, leaving my babies behind, going to the World Cup. [But] in the middle of the World Cup, he kind of sidelined me, and I came home with my tail between my legs." She reflected on the disappointment: "I was due to do so many knockout games and he said, 'oh, just don't come back' basically. Go home and don't come back because I was due to go home for a few days. In between the end of the group stages and the knockout stages, there's always a couple of days off and I was going to go home because it was only Germany and the kids were a year old." The incident even led Logan to weigh up the possibility of changing careers. She explained: "I remember being at home – we were doing up a house at the time, so we were renting a house in Barnes. It was a lovely day, it was gorgeous and the river was looking beautiful and the sky was blue. "I just remember walking around the garden thinking 'oh gosh, I love doing up houses, I'm just going to shift and go into property because that's what my mum does'. I was maybe 33 at the time and I thought maybe my law degree wasn't out of date and I could upgrade and go to bar school. I was really contemplating what to do next." However, Logan confessed that this initial hiccup turned out to be a hidden blessing as she left ITV later that year to join the BBC, where her career took off. "I was given an opportunity to go to the BBC, where I really felt I had to start again in quite a lot of ways," she said. "It was like I was going to a new school, in terms of proving yourself to the teachers and the other kids. "When I look back now, how much more misogynistic the angles were to these articles and how always whatever I was wearing or looked like was talked about with regard to my performance. I was never it was never the same for a male colleague, they wouldn't talk about his suit. "There was a lot of that to deal with, and I think it definitely fortified me. Once I got that second chance, as I saw it at the time - somewhere that I'd always hoped I might work because of the BBC having the long history with doing the Olympics and various other things that I really wanted to work on – I felt really grateful, and also that I was going to not let this opportunity go." Join our new WhatsApp community and receive your daily dose of Mirror Football content. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don't like our community, you can check out any time you like. If you're curious, you can read our Privacy Notice.