Johannesburg, June 8 (IANS) A dejected Rio Ferdinand said that his knee injury, which has ruled him out of the football World Cup, is not Emile Heskey’s fault.
The Manchester United defender, who was set to captain England, was Friday ruled out of the tournament after suffering a knee injury in training.
‘It was a complete freak, an accident,’ said Ferdinand of the incident with Emile.
‘The ball came in from one of the lads to Emile, I’d gone to try and tackle him from behind – he didn’t actually see me coming – we both went off balance and Emile’s weight went down on my knee.
‘It’s no fault of his at all. It’s just a freak accident that could happen at any given time and it had no connection to any previous injuries I’ve had,’ Ferndinand was quoted as saying by The Daily Telegraph.
Ferdinand was aware that his World Cup dream was over even before he received the results of his scan.
‘I knew I wasn’t going to be able to play in the World Cup even before I got the scan (result) – I was just waiting to get it confirmed.
‘It’s disappointing, but I’ve come to terms with it now. The first night was quite a pretty long night, going over what could’ve been and to not be able to represent your country in the World Cup.
‘Leading out your country into a major tournament is the stuff of dreams and it’s taken from under your feet. It was a long evening thinking about stuff like that.
‘But after that I’ve thought to myself I’ve got to get on with it. There’s a lot more people worse off than I am. I’m not dying and it’s not like I’ll never be able to play football again.
‘Hopefully I’ll be able to come back, do some good rehab and I’ll be fit and that’s what I’m concentrating on now.’
Ferdinand will now watch Saturday’s match in Rustenburg before joining the millions in England watching the Group C fixtures with Algeria (June 18) and Slovenia (June 23) on television.
