Ferdinand U-turn

Rio Ferdinand is reconsidering his decision to appeal against his drugs ban after realising that failure to win a reprieve could ruin a huge portion of next season.

The Manchester United and England defender still believes his eight-month suspension for missing a random drugs test is too harsh. But Ferdinand, 25, is considering his position carefully after coming to terms with the fact that a failed appeal could rule him out of action until next winter.

Ferdinand's lawyers yesterday received a 32-page explanation of the independent FA commission's verdict. They have two weeks to examine it before responding.

The player's advisers have always privately accepted that he would be banned but if they can find holes in the commission's justification of their sentence, they will advise their client to appeal.

A club statement said yesterday: ' Manchester United can confirm that Rio Ferdinand's lawyers have today received the written reasons for the FA's decision at the hearing of 19 December 2002.

'The player now has 14 days to decide whether to appeal, and until that decision has been taken no further comment will be made.'

When the FA announced Ferdinand's ban, United director and solicitor Maurice Watkins said an appeal against the ' savage and unprecedented' punishment was 'inevitable'.

Ferdinand gave his blessing to United's reaction but since then his mood has become a little more pragmatic. Ferdinand's ban is due to begin in a fortnight and would run until the middle of September. But an appeal would not be heard until the end of February at the earliest and - if the verdict and sentence are upheld - would delay the start and finish of the suspension.