End of the road for Rio?

Monday, 3rd October 2011 at 11:31am

After a long and distinguished career at the very top of the game it seems that age and injury are beginning to catch up with Rio Ferdinand as the 32-year-old former England captain was left out of coach Fabio Capello's England squad for this evening's key clash against Montenegro.

Ferdinand was out of action for a few weeks with a hamstring injury that he suffered during the first match of the season against West Brom but returned to take his place in the starting lineup against Stoke City and Swiss club FC Basle in the Champions League.

With Ferdinand at the back United gave two of their shakiest displays of the season, first losing their unblemished Premier League run by drawing 1-1 at the Britannina Stadium and then snatching a last-gasp draw against Basle at Old Trafford, where the Red Devils haven't lost in 17 months.

While those performances weren't solely his fault, Ferdinand found himself back on the bench for Saturday's 2-0 win against Norwich as Sir Alex Ferguson rotated his squad.

It is another blow for the Peckham-born centre half, who was relieved of the England captaincy in March of this year when England's Italian manager chose to restore John Terry, Ferdinand's long-time partner at the heart of the England defence, as captain.

While still a classy, ball playing defender, Ferdinand's time as an England regular appears to be drawing to a conclusion after an international career that has seen him collect 81 caps.

Even now few would doubt the ability of the man Ferguson labeled a "Rolls Royce defender" when he splashed out 30 million (B1.5 billion) to bring him to Old Trafford after the 2002 Japan and South Korea World Cup but injuries appear to be taking their toll.

In the last two seasons Ferdinand appeared in a total of 32 league games for United - less than half of the games the club has played in that time - because of various back, muscle and knee injuries, the latter of which forced him to miss the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

During that time, Ferdinand has also witnessed the rise to prominence of young English starlets Chris Smalling and Phil Jones, both of whom now vie with him for a place in the United starting 11.

Capello has vowed to use some of England's brightest young talents in the build up to Euro 2012 in Poland and the Ukraine and stop picking players on reputation alone. The Italian has already singled out Jones for praise and the former AC Milan manager's sentiments were echoed by Terry who has been impressed by what he has seen so far.

England need just a point from tonight's match in Montenegro to qualify automatically for next year's finals and Capello insists that his side will go there looking for the win.

"If you play for a draw it is a big mistake, you are defending a result and it is easy then to make silly or stupid mistakes," he said.

"We need to go to win in Montenegro and not to play for a draw."

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