ANTON KEEPS CALM

QPR defender and brother of Manchester United player Rio Ferdinand – Anton Ferdinand – has refused to criticise the decision taken by England manager Roy Hodgson to omit his brother from the squad that travelled to the Euro 2012.

This has become a major issue in England after many have suspected that Roy Hodgson has decided to leave Rio Ferdinand in favour of Chelsea captain and defender John Terry, according to the Man Utd news website. It was very much expected that there would be a lot of animosity in the England dressing room if both these players were taken together. The 33-year-old Rio Ferdinand has been in excellent form for Manchester United in the last few weeks of the campaign.

Anton Ferdinand, though, refused to criticise the decision taken by Roy Hodgson because he felt that it was not a decision taken on the skin colour, but a decision taken based on the level of playing in recent seasons. Rio Ferdinand has suffered a number of injury problems for Manchester United this season. It has also been one of the reasons for Manchester United failing to win a trophy for the first time in four seasons. Ferdinand has said that he has forgotten the incident with Fernando Torres‘s team-mate because he has moved on in life.

“Things happen in football. It’s a game of ups and downs. I am sure he’d like to be there but sadly it didn’t happen this time. But we move on and, like he said, he’s going to follow them from somewhere else and, as a family and as a community, we’re going to do that,” Anton Ferdinand told Daybreak.

“It might be an issue – but it’s an issue I’m happy to talk about when the tournament is over maybe. We are here to talk about the tournament and about the future and that’s it,” said FA chairman David Bernstein.