Injury returns to plague Ferdinand

RIO FERDINAND’S season has ended as it began after he was ruled out of England’s next two games because of a long-standing knee injury.

It completes a miserable year fitness wise for Britain’s costliest defender, whose career had been relatively injury-free until he completed his £29.3m move from Leeds to Manchester United.

Having travelled back to Manchester for an examination by United club doctor Mike Stone, it was decided Ferdinand should have exploratory surgery to assess the extent of the problem which plagued him for the last two months of the Old Trafford outfit’s title-winning campaign.