This from the Sunday mirror
Oct 23, 2003
Did he have something to hide?
Rio reportedly sent message to his doctor after being picked for drugs test
LONDON - The mystery over Rio Ferdinand's missed drugs test took a dramatic new twist yesterday, with new revelations that the Manchester United player may have lied.
The Sunday Mirror reported that, contrary to earlier reports that his mobile phone was off after finishing training, he had sent a text message to a private doctor.
The doctor, Dr Patrick O'Reilly, is a surgeon who is understood to be treating Ferdinand for a kidney infection.
The defender sent the message within minutes of leaving the club's training ground and just an hour after being ordered to attend the random check.
Although a desperate phone call and a series of text messages had been left on his phone by club doctor Mike Stone, it took Ferdinand nearly half an hour to call back.
The Sunday Mirror said the player's 'lost' 90 minutes between driving off from the ground and calling Dr Stone will be investigated by the Football Association this week.
Officials are still deciding how to punish the player, who claimed he had forgotten about the drug test.
The Football Association's first response was to drop him from the England team who played Turkey two weeks ago in their European Championship qualifier. According to the tabloid, the FA will be handed the vital phone records today and will cross-reference the call times with the formal account the player has already given them.
The revelations form a major development in the FA inquiry into whether Ferdinand deliberately avoided the doping team or merely forgot, as he insists.
He claimed the test slipped his mind despite two reminders from Dr Stone at United's training ground. He passed the test 36 hours later.
FA officials will want to know why Ferdinand contacted O'Reilly while he should have been taking the drug test.
If Ferdinand's explanation is unsatisfactory, he could face a more serious charge of wilfully avoiding a drugs test, which carries a maximum two-year ban from the game.
A senior FA source said: 'If his phone was on and he ignored messages from United, that suggests he might have something to hide.'
However, Ferdinand will claim he called Dr Stone back within 40 seconds of him picking up his phone message.
The Sunday Mirror, using sources close to United, the FA and Ferdinand, said the first person Ferdinand contacted about 10 minutes after leaving the training ground was Dr O'Reilly.
In between missing the test at about 12.30pm and calling Dr Stone at around 2pm, Ferdinand made and received around a dozen calls and texts.
Dr Stone reportedly first left him a voicemail message at about 1.30pm - half an hour before the player phoned him back.