England team vows to win World Cup for Ferdinand

RUSTENBURG - The England team in South Africa has vowed to win the World Cup for their injured captain Rio Ferdinand.

Ferdinand has been ruled out of action for up to six weeks after he damaged his left-knee ligaments when he went into a challenge with Emile Heskey during training.

“It’s a setback, but the players will pick themselves up and fight on. It will take more than this to break their spirit,” The Sun quoted an England insider, as saying.

“We have a strong squad and an even stronger backbone. If we win it, we’ll win it for Rio,” the source added.

The 31-year-old had been dogged by back and groin injuries this season, but had trained well at England’s two-week warm-up camp in Austria and was also part of the team for friendly against Mexico and Japan.

It is unclear if he would leave or stay back with team to lend support like David Beckham.

Ferdinand became captain in March after John Terry was stripped of the skipper’s armband over his fling with the former girlfriend of ex-England pal Wayne Bridge. (ANI)