Former Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand has criticised England manager Gareth Southgate for his handling of the Raheem Sterling - Joe Gomez incident.
Sterling has been dropped for England's clash against Montenegro following an altercation with the Liverpool defender. The pair clashed at Anfield during Liverpool's 3-1 win against Manchester City and the feud continued on international duty.
Southgate said: "We have taken the decision to not consider Raheem for the match against Montenegro on Thursday.
"One of the great challenges and strengths for us is that we’ve been able to separate club rivalries from the national team. Unfortunately the emotions of yesterday’s game were still raw."
Ferdinand - who made 81 appearances for the Three Lions - believes Southgate has handled the situation wrongly and believes it should have been kept in house.
The 41-year-old criticised the England boss in a lengthy post on his Facebook page.
"Gareth has handled being England manager brilliantly - up to this point," he wrote. "However, I feel this incident could have been handled better.
"Keep it behind closed doors & deal with it internally surely?! Come international week, it’s meet up time between Sterling and Gomez. Sterling was still upset with Gomez about the result on Sunday and their little pushing/words said during the game.
"So he has obviously gone into the England camp heated and gone for Gomez, in doing so grabbed Gomez by the throat. Obviously as a manager I’m sure having a harmonious squad is the best scenario - handshakes and hugs on sight, not confrontations. But let’s be honest now this kind of stuff isn’t uncommon in squads full of testosterone."
Ferdinand added that Sterling must now defend himself again from the 'haters' that had previously criticised him.
The former defender believes Southgate has hung the Man City star out to dry.
He added: "Now Raheem is left to defend himself from all of the haters that had had their keyboards turnt off due to him becoming a very worthy ambassador for the English game, and rightly so.
"If this was a terrible incident then I would be all for public shaming & discipline. But for this ‘throat grab’ that we are TOLD it’s for I can’t understand it.
"Gareth would no doubt had seen worse many times during his time as a player and manager. I just feel this could and should have been handled better to support the player and not hang him out to dry.
"It seems to me, Raheem felt embarrassed by all that went on at the weekend.... a sign of winning mentality..... however channeled wrongly. Help educate him!"
