Play on Ferdinand

Rio Ferdinand will start England's final World Cup qualifier on Wednesday, following a message of support from national coach Fabio Capello.

Many pundits found fault with the United defender when goalkeeper Robert Green was sent off in Saturday’s shock 1-0 defeat to Ukraine. However, Capello will ignore the critics and retain Rio in his back four to face Belarus at Wembley.

“Rio will play," Capello confirmed.

"I have big confidence in Rio. I'm sure he will get better with every game. I spoke with Rio and I will speak also with some other players. We will watch the DVD of the Ukraine game to understand what happened and I will see the mistakes."

Wes Brown, Ben Foster and Michael Carrick are Rio’s fellow Reds in a squad depleted by Wayne Rooney’s withdrawal. “Rooney is a very important player for us. For this reason we will play a different style against Belarus, with some different players,” said Capello, whose team have already qualified for South Africa 2010. Other United players in action on Wednesday night include Nani and Antonio Valencia, both of whom are still chasing a place in the World Cup finals.

Nani’s Portugal are expected to reach the European play-offs, having manoeuvred into second place in their qualifying group with only Malta left to play at home. Valencia’s Ecuador have slipped down the solitary South American group, from which the top four qualify automatically. Fifth place and a play-off against a team from North, Central America and Caribbean now seems the most realistic route – to get that, the Ecuadorians will need to win in Chile while Uruguay fail to beat Argentina in Montevideo.

source: ManUtd.com