Ferguson defend Rio over England withdrawal

Alex Ferguson on Friday defended Rio Ferdinand over the Manchester United defender's withdrawal from the England squad, AFP reports. 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."