Rio reduced to tears by ban

Rio Ferdinand today revealed he will not launch a second appeal against his eight-month ban for missing a drugs test – and the Manchester United defender has told how he was reduced to tears by the Football Association’s disciplinary action.

The England defender claims the whole saga could have been avoided but a key member of the FA was away on holiday when he tried to arrange to meet the drug-testers again.

In an interview on ‘The Real Story’ screened on BBC1 at 7.30pm tonight, Ferdinand says: “I love playing for England.

"I love playing for my club. My club means so much to me, I go out there and play for the fans and for my family and for myself and to have that taken away from me in such a way was disheartening and something that really did shock me. I’m man enough to admit that I did cry.”

Ferdinand admits he was told twice he had to take a drugs tests but maintains he forgot and that as soon as Manchester United told him he had missed the test, he contacted the FA to ask the testers to go straight back to the Carrington training ground.

He added: “I made a conscious decision to phone the FA which I did after that phone call and they said: 'The person who you need to speak to is on holiday', so I’d done my utmost to try and rectify the position that I was in at the time and to rectify the mistake I’d made, but there there was no safety net there for me to go back and do the test.

“A person that is trying to get away from doing a test for some reason doesn’t make attempts to phone back the club doctors and the FA to rectify his position.”