Ferdinand’s injury is ‘curse of being England captain’: Capello

RUSTENBURG - England manager Fabio Capello has complained that all his captains must be cursed, after Rio Ferdinand was ruled out of the World Cup in South Africa due to a knee injury.

Ferdinand’s misfortune in damaging his left knee ligaments comes only three months after John Terry was stripped of the skipper’s armband because of his off-the-field misdemeanors.

“It’s the curse of being the captain,” The Sun quoted Capello, as saying.

Capello said that the entire squad was very disappointed after the incident.

“It was an accidental injury in training and had nothing to do with the pitch. It happened in a normal tackle. He turned and there was a problem with the left knee. He felt big pain in the knee. Big pain. Rio put his feet on the grass with Heskey, but it wasn’t an issue with the pitch, not at all,” Capello said.

“All the players who are here with me are important, but Rio is one of the starting players, the captain, a leader. It couldn’t have been much worse on my first day. True. The other players were upset, absolutely upset and they stopped training,” he added.

The 63-year-old however insists that the Three Lions will have to move forward despite the big blow.

“Rio was always an important player for us, even if we played games without him, but I have big confidence in my other defenders. You have to take into account this might happen - sometimes it happens during a game, sometimes in training,” Capello said.

“You have to prepare always for this like a manager does. It happens sometimes and you have to deal with it. It’s normal for the manager. Normal,” he added.

Meanwhile, Michael Dawson has been named as Ferdinand’s replacement, while Steven Gerrard was confirmed as the new captain. (ANI)