Rio Ferdinand has issued a heartfelt apology to former Manchester United teammate Phil Jones after aiming criticism at him in 2021 which he regrets.
Jones spent 12 years with the Red Devils but the final three seasons of that stint saw him play very little football in any competitions.
While there were times when he simply wasn’t being picked, the England international was also dealing with serious injury, with a knee problem keeping him out for almost all of 2020 and much of 2021.
His fitness situation was not entirely clear, though, and Ferdinand was unaware that he was out injured, instead thinking he was just accepting his place out of the first team.
Ferdinand hit out at his former teammate in 2021 but has now apologised, accepting he made a mistake as he wasn’t aware of the facts.
Speaking to Jones on Rio Ferdinand Presents, he said: ‘There’s an elephant in the room today. I have to say I apologise. I said it privately but I’ll say it publicly now. I apologise for criticising you like I did.
‘I criticised him because he wasn’t playing for a long period of time so I said he needed to go out and play. I said why is he just sitting there? Is he staying there for his own ego? Does he just want the United crest on his badge? Just go and play football and let another kid come through because you’re stifling their progression.
‘But you know what the turning point was? Ole [Gunnar Solskjaer] text me. He said, “you’re obviously not aware but Phil has been injured for a long time.” I was like, “s**t. Why’s no one told me?” I wasn’t aware and I reached out to Fletch [Darren Fletcher] and Ole and asked them to apologise on my behalf.
‘I wanted to apologise directly but he didn’t want to speak to me at the time. But I was unware, I was unaware of the situation. So I just want to say sorry again man, it was never personal.’
Jones said it was hard to hear the criticism from Ferdinand, explaining what a difficult period he was going through.
‘Apology accepted,’ he said. ‘That was a tough, tough period for me. When I was growing up, you were so important and influential. I would watch you growing up. I tried to model my game on yours, I would watch you in training.
‘So for someone like you to come out and say that, one I was vulnerable anyway because I had been out for so long and I was thinking this could be it for me. And then that comes out and it’s another thing to deal with. I didn’t want to respond, I was never that character, that wasn’t in my nature. Because I looked up to you and you were such an icon and a legend, it was difficult.
‘I should have reached out but because I was in such a hole, such a dark place, I wasn’t thinking about that.’
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