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MANCHESTER, United Kingdom (AFP) –
Manchester United‘s Rio Ferdinand at Old Trafford in Manchester, north-west England on April 22 2012. Alex Ferguson on Friday defended Ferdinand over his decision to withdraw from the England squad.
Alex Ferguson on Friday defended Rio Ferdinand over the Manchester United defender’s withdrawal from the England squad.
The centre-back has not played international football since 2011 but was called up by England coach Roy Hodgson for the World Cup qualifiers against San Marino and Montenegro.
Ferdinand then pulled out, citing a detailed training schedule that manages his long-standing back problem and then controversially flew to Qatar to cover England’s match with San Marino as a television pundit.
The defender maintains that he still wants to play for England in the future but was the subject of abusive chanting from fans during Hodgson’s side’s 8-0 win over San Marino on Friday.
FIFA are investigating whether the chants directed at Ferdinand, and his brother Anton, had racist overtones.
United manager Ferguson, though, insisted that Ferdinand has handled the situation well and has no problem with the veteran taking long flights during the international break.
“I think he did the right thing in going back down and meeting Roy Hodgson and I encouraged him to do that myself,” Ferguson told a news conference.
“I thought he should go down and do it face to face with Roy and explain how we handle him and how he prepares for games. And that was the right thing to do. Roy appreciated that as far as I am aware.
“I only caught up on a couple of these things over the last couple of days and (flying to Doha) doesn’t bother me one bit. We shouldn’t get too bothered about it.
“They had they weekend off and players are entitled to do what they want to do.
They trained all last week and were given Friday, Saturday and Sunday off with the internationals being on, so he’s got his own choice in these things.”
Asked about the chants directed at Ferdinand, Ferguson added: “That’s modern society, I’m afraid. We see a lot of that, supporters’ reaction to many things and I don’t think we can change that. It’s the modern society we’re in.”
With the international break out of the way, Ferguson is set to utilise his squad as United return to domestic action with two games in the space of three days.
After they travel to Sunderland in the Premier League on Saturday, Ferguson’s men head to Chelsea for an FA Cup quarter-final replay on Monday.
Ferguson acknowledges there will be further fatigue following the international break.
“I don’t think we have any injuries from the internationals which is really good news but there’s a fair bit of tiredness,” he said.
“Hopefully we will have a good strong squad to approach the two games tomorrow and Monday.
“We’ll play a strong side against Sunderland and try to keep the momentum going on the run we’re in and if we do that Monday will take care of itself.”
Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini, whose side trail United by 15 points, finally conceded that Ferguson’s men have won the title on Thursday.
But the United manager is adamant that will not change his team’s attitude to their remaining matches.
“The approach has been right. We’re just trying to win the next game. It’s the only way we can approach it,” Ferguson said.
“We’re in an unusual position. We didn’t expect to have this kind of lead but we’ve got to take advantage of that and win our next game and that reduces the number of games left and we just have to whittle the games away and see where it takes us.”
United lost the title on goal difference last season despite a victory at Sunderland on the final day, but Ferguson insists that painful experience will help his team avoid a repeat.
“It happens, we move on and this year we’ve dusted ourselves down and made a real good challenge of the league,” he said.
“The concentration and commitment and team spirit has been excellent. So in that respect, we’ve answered the only way we can.”
