Rio Ferdinand has pulled out of a charity match that would have seen the retired defender appear on the same team as his former England team-mates John Terry and Ashley Cole after suffering a calf injury.
Match for Children, which is being held at Old Trafford on 14 November to raise funds for Unicef, would have been the first time Ferdinand had lined up alongside Terry since the Chelsea captain was caught on camera shouting “fucking black cunt” at his younger brother, Anton, when Chelsea played at QPR in October 2011.
Terry was acquitted of the charge of racial abuse when he appeared at Westminster magistrates’ court in July 2012, where Cole gave crucial evidence on his behalf, but a later Football Association charge was proven and he was banned for four matches as well as being fined £220,000.
Terry is still scheduled to appear at the match, which will feature David Beckham and Sir Alex Ferguson’s Great Britain and Ireland team against a Rest of the World XI, but a statement on the Manchester United website on Thursday listed Ferdinand as one of the absentees, with the 37-year-old understood to have sustained a calf injury.
“Players who were originally scheduled to play including Rio Ferdinand, Andy Cole, Fabio Cannavaro, Alessandro Nesta and Massimo Ambrosini can no longer attend Saturday’s match,” it read.
