Rio to appeal eight-month ban

Rio Ferdinand will appeal against an eight-month ban – branded “savage and unprecedented” by his club – for failing to take a drugs test.

The world’s costliest defender has been rocked by the sentence, which rules him out of the remainder of Manchester United’s club campaign, the first month of the next Premiership season – due to commence on August 14 – next summer’s European Championships and almost certainly the first two World Cup qualifiers.