Rio: Ban made me cry

Rio Ferdinand today revealed he will not launch a second appeal against his eight-month ban for missing a drugs test - and the Manchester United defender has told how he was reduced to tears by the Football Association's disciplinary action.

The England defender claims the whole saga could have been avoided but a key member of the FA was away on holiday when he tried to arrange to meet the drug-testers again.

In an interview on 'The Real Story' screened on BBC1 at 7.30pm tonight, Ferdinand says: "I love playing for England, I love playing for my club. My club means so much to me, I go out there and play for the fans and for my family and for myself and to have that taken away from me in such a way was disheartening and something that really did shock me. I'm man enough to admit that I did cry."

Ferdinand admits he was told twice he had to take a drugs tests but maintains he forgot and that as soon as Manchester United told him he had missed the test, he contacted the FA to ask the testers to go straight back to the Carrington training ground.

He added: "I made a conscious decision to phone the FA which I did after that phone call and they said the person who you need to speak to was on holiday, so I'd done my utmost to try and rectify the position that I was in at the time and to rectify the mistake I'd made - but there there was no safety net there for me to go back and do the test.

"A person that is trying to get away from doing a test for some reason doesn't make attempts to phone back the club doctors and the FA to rectify his position."

Ferdinand also says in The Sun today that he will not take a second appeal to the Court for Arbitration for Sport in Switzerland.

He said: "I still think the ban was harsh and that I have been made an example of. But I've decided it is time this case came to an end.

"When my appeal was rejected last Thursday my first reaction was to keep going. But I've had a chance to think about it and don't feel it would serve any purpose by dragging it out.

"The point has been made that I'm not a drug-taker. Everyone accepts that, which was very important to me. I feel I've cleared my name in that regard."

On 'The Real Story', Ferdinand also offers an explanation behind a phone call made to a consultant urologist shortly after he failed to take the test.

He says: "I'd just come back from injury, that doctor had been consulting me on issues to do with that injury. After every training session I was speaking to him just letting him know how I got on and if I was feeling OK.

"My phone record bill showed I was phoning them at a consistent time over those weeks after training, so that was no different from any other day."

He is also furious that his mobile phone records leaked into the public domain, adding: "My phone records get put out into the public which is just something that I could never understand and it is something that really really did hurt me."