Euro 2012 News: Manchester United’s Ferdinand handed back England captaincy from Liverpool’s Gerrard
There was much speculation and controversy over who would retain the honour of leading the Three Lions and in the end it seems that Red Devil’s Rio Ferdinand will assume his position as skipper of the English team.
Media reports have confirmed that the star Manchester United centre back Rio Ferdinand has held firmly to the captaincy post for England, in spite of his long absence from the team because of an injury.
Sources revealed that captain’s position will remain with the former West Ham United player Ferdinand, whether this be a plea from the defender to the coach of England Fabio Capello or this be a decision of the Italian manager
himself.
The 31 year old world class player, who is also the captain of Manchester United has had the year riddled with troubles. The whole year he had been struggling to find top form and if that wasn’t enough, he had been under the constant
observation of doctors because of his injuries.
Scans and medical procedures have been related to him all this time. Similarly he has been suffering from knee and calf injuries; his old chronic back pain was also back to disturb him.
Just before the FIFA 2010 World Cup in South Africa Ferdinand fell to a knee injury. The incident occurred in a practice session before the tournament had actually started so the skipper had to be benched.
The injury happened when team mate Emile Heskey tackled Ferdinand which immediately gave the impression that he might have to suffer from a long term injury. Ferdinand just recently made his first club appearance after his recovery.
Five months on the sidelines and Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson wanted to make sure that the player had good enough fitness levels to feature as a star in the starting lineup, therefore he took his time before bringing
the player back on field.
When the Euro 2012 fixtures came up England obviously needed a new captain, henceforth the coveted midfielder Steven Gerrard was given the captain’s armband.
So far Gerrard has led the team in a fine manner, managing lustrous wins over Bulgaria 4-0 and Switzerland 3-1. The 63 year old Italian manager obviously had white hair of wisdom when he chose the Reds man for this job.
It was reckoned that Fabio Capello and his men had different opinions on who should be the English captain. While the obvious choice technically was to hand over the leading job to its predecessor Ferdinand on his return but under
the current intricate situation, exceptions could have been made.
As a matter of fact most observers were expecting the captaincy to remain with the 30 year old Gerrard. The issue had sparked up to be quite notorious as the Liverpool legend had stated that he would like to retain the position
even after the arrival of Ferdinand in the team.
Capello had earlier stated that the issue will be dealt with when Ferdinand returns, and hours after his readmission in the team he announced that Ferdinand who he gave the captain’s responsibility early in February this year will
remain responsible for the armband.
With England’s next match against Montenegro coming up on 12th
of October Ferdinand will have to gain full trust of his team before he sets off into the field again.
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