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England call on Michael Dawson after Rio Ferdinand ruled out

05 June 2010 04:15 (UTC +04:00)

Baku â€“ APA. Fabio Capello bemoaned the â€œcurse of the captainâ€ last night after Rio Ferdinandâ€™s hopes of leading England to glory in the World Cup ended in heartbreak, APA reports quoting â€œTimes Onlineâ€.
Ferdinand was ruled out of the tournament after damaging knee ligaments while trying to close down Emile Heskey in the final minutes of a morning training session at the Royal Bafokeng Sports Campus barely 24 hours after the squad arrived in South Africa â€” and only eight days before they face the United States in their opening game of the tournament.
Ferdinand was immediately taken by ambulance to a nearby hospital, where scans and a second examination revealed that the injury â€” believed to be to the medial collateral ligament â€” would keep him out of action for four to six weeks.
The Manchester United defender had had only two matches as England captain since being installed by Capello in succession to John Terry, who was stripped of the honour in February after a series of revelations about his personal life.
The captaincy will be passed on to Steven Gerrard, the Liverpool midfield player, and Michael Dawson, the uncapped Tottenham Hotspur defender, was immediately summoned to fly to South Africa last night to replace Ferdinand in the squad.
â€œItâ€™s the curse of being the captain,â€ Capello said. â€œIt happened near the end of training and Rio felt big pain in the knee. It was a tackle, but he was more or less alone. He put his feet in the grass with Heskey. I didnâ€™t see it. He told me. I was too far away to see.
â€œIt is obviously bad news and everyone with the squad is very disappointed and sorry for Rio. It was an accidental injury in training, but had nothing to do with the pitch. Always, all the players are important. But he is one of the starting players, the captain, a leader. But you have to go forward.â€
With England taking on the US in their opening game in group C a week today, the news came as a serious blow to Ferdinand and to Capello, and the manager swiftly called up Dawson, who had been dropped when the 30-man provisional squad was reduced to 23 players on Tuesday.
With Fifaâ€™s regulations allowing teams to replace an injured player up to 24 hours before their opening game of the tournament, Dawson boarded a flight from London to Johannesburg last night and will arrive at Englandâ€™s base in Rustenburg today.
Ledley King will be favourite to play alongside John Terry in central defence against the US â€” with Jamie Carragher, Matthew Upson and Dawson providing cover â€” but Capello said that he would wait before making a decision. â€œWait, wait,â€ he said. â€œI choose the first XI two hours before the game. But all the players here are ready to play for me. Theyâ€™re at the same level. Theyâ€™re ready.â€
Ferdinand is expected to fly back to England over the next few days, having been left devastated by an injury in what, at 31 and given his injury problems over the past couple of years, might have proved his last chance to win the World Cup.
Ferdinand started only 19 of Unitedâ€™s 55 matches last season because of a combination of back and groin injuries.
The loss of Ferdinand overshadowed the absence from training of David James, the goalkeeper, with what Capello called a â€œslight problem with his knee after a long flightâ€ and, on a more positive note, the participation of Gareth Barry, who missed the pretournament training camp in Austria with an ankle injury.
The England manager said after the morning training session yesterday that Barry retained an outside chance of playing against the US, but that it was more likely the Manchester City midfield player would be fit for the second match, against Algeria in Cape Town on June 18.
â€œAbout Barry, we are happy because heâ€™s improving every day,â€ Capello said. â€œHe spent the morning with the team and heâ€™ll be in the gym with the physio in the afternoon.
â€œI spoke with him on Thursday and he says heâ€™s really happy. Thereâ€™s no swelling and his confidence is rising. But we go slowly. This is the worst period. If you go too fast, itâ€™s really dangerous. Iâ€™d prefer he didnâ€™t play against the US and is fit for the other games.â€