Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson is thought to have used his powers to prevent Rio Ferdinand from going to the national team for the recent World Cup qualifying matches.

Only after a few days of being extremely excited about being announced in the squad, Ferdinand pulled out of the England squad by citing reasons that seemed baffling. There has been a suggestion that the press conference given by Ferguson about the international career of Ferdinand is thought to have been the main reason behind this pull out.

Ferdinand is out of contract at the end of the season, and he is thought to be keen on extending his stay at Old Trafford. Hence, he did not want to anger Ferguson ahead of the crucial negotiation time. England manager Roy Hodgson, though, has said that he will talk with Ferguson about taking Ferdinand to play against Brazil in a friendly match in June. Hodgson also said that the rest of the possibility that Ferdinand may play in his first major tournament since the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany.

Hodgson was left with a defensive crisis for the recent matches against San Marino and Montenegro. Hence, he decided to call Ferdinand to the squad despite leaving out the defender for the Euro 2012 only a few months ago.

"First of all, I would say the two centre-backs did very well. Chris Smalling was excellent and Joleon Lescott did a very good job as well. I would have thought if there were two players who deserve to come out of this game with credit and without any negativity it's the two centre-backs. So, therefore, there's no interest for me discussing someone who is not here. I have absolutely nothing to add from when it first came up," said Hodgson after the World Cup qualifying matches.