Troubled footballer Ashley Cole will escape a showdown with wife Cheryl for a few more days.

As the Girls Aloud stunner flies home from her charity mountain climb today, her wayward husband is escaping to Italy for a football match.

Cheryl (25) is on a high after conquering 19,330ft Mt Kilimanjaro with other celebrities in aid of Comic Relief. She was also named the world's most stylish woman and is preparing to sign a £1m (€1.1m) deal with X Factor.

However, she was swiftly brought back down to earth when it was revealed that Ashley (28) was arrested in London for being drunk and disorderly.

The X Factor judge is said to be fuming with her husband.

The Chelsea and England footballer has plans to fly to Turin for the match against Juventus just hours before his wife lands in Britain. He is not due back in London until Thursday.

Soccer bosses have also banned a confrontation between the pair while Ashley is away, claiming it could jeopardise the Champions League match.

Cheryl had imposed a strict party curfew on her husband after he allegedly cheated on her with hairdresser Aimee Walton (23) on a drunken night out last year.

But while Cheryl was helping to raise more than €1.33m for charity with fellow celebrities Kimberley Walsh, Ronan Keating and Gary Barlow, Ashley broke his vow by heading out on the town.

He was taken to a central London police station and issued a fixed penalty notice for being drunk and disorderly before being released shortly after 5.30am. The sports star had clashed with paparazzi before launching a tirade against police.

Ashley was out drinking with England captain John Terry and was seen in the company of a mystery blonde. However, the soccer star is reportedly trying to track down the woman, in a bid to show his wife that he wasn't misbehaving.

Cole was fined two weeks wages after the incident but claims he was having an "intellectual conversation" with the woman in question.

Now Cheryl will be demanding answers and sources said that she is devastated.

"She wants to hear the truth from Ashley's lips," the friend said. "He made a series of promises to her and now she is distraught that he appears to have broken that trust."

Cheryl, who was named best dressed by Tatler magazine, suffered from sickness and vertigo while on the charity climb in Africa. The young singer reportedly broke down in tears when she heard the news about Ashley.

She said of the climb: "It was the most mentally and physically challenging experience of my life. Nothing could have prepared me for what I was in for."