LONDON – Rio Ferdinand’s broken relationship with John Terry may have ended his England career after Roy Hodgson decided to sacrifice the Manchester United defender from his Euro 2012 plans.Hodgson contacted Ferdinand on Tuesday to inform him that he would not be including him in his squad for the tournament in Poland and Ukraine next month. The England manager then travelled to Chelsea’s training ground where he met Terry for the first time since taking the job and spoke at length to him and the club’s other England internationals about his plans for the competition.Hodgson also rang Peter Crouch, the Stoke City striker, and perhaps most surprisingly Micah Richards, the Manchester City right-back, to let them know that they were also being left out.By that stage Hodgson had learned that Kyle Walker, the Tottenham Hotspur defender, will miss the tournament because of a broken toe. Ferdinand’s own disappointment is tinged by a sense of bitterness as he reflects on the end of a 14-year international career, encompassing 82 caps and three World Cups. The official line Hodgson will use is that it is purely because Ferdinand is now 33 and has suffered from recurrent back and calf injuries over the past three seasons. Ferdinand’s dismay is not eased by the fact Jones, almost guaranteed to get a place in the squad, is one of his understudies at club level, while Hodgson also planned to select Chris Smalling, another of the players behind him in the pecking order at Old Trafford.
