Terry mulls legal action over Indian anti-smoking picture

England captain John Terry's representatives plan to take legal action after a blurred picture resembling the player was used in India's anti-smoking campaign, a local newspaper reported on Tuesday.

"We have reviewed this matter with our client and have today instructed solicitors to take appropriate action," Keith Cousins of Elite Management was quoted as saying in the Indian Express after the picture of a bare-chested man appeared on cigarette packets above the slogan 'Smoking kills'.

An advertising agency official denied the picture was of the Chelsea central defender.

"The health ministry of the government has already issued a clarification on the issue, saying it has got nothing to do with John Terry," the official from the Directorate of Audio and Visual Publicity, who asked to remain anonymous, said by telephone.

"It was purely a piece of artistic imagination and I don't know why an issue is being created."

Terry, 31, is due to appear in a British court on February 1 to face a charge of racially abusing Queens Park Rangers defender Anton Ferdinand in a Premier League match in October. He denies the charge.