The Telegraph report that Rio got in touch 25 minutes before the testers left Carrington
From today's Sunday Telegraph:
Claims that drug-testers ignored Rio Ferdinand's offer to return to Manchester United's training ground and submit to a dope test two hours after he failed to provide a urine sample will be hotly contested when the defender appears before a discplinary commission in Bolton on Thursday and Friday
.Sources have revealed that Ferdinand did make a call on his mobile phone at 2.02pm on Sept 23 but not, as widely reported last week, to the club doctor, Mike Stone. Instead, Ferdinand telephoned the Football Association's headquarters in London's Soho Square while Stone waited with the drug-testing team at United's Carrington training ground for news of the player's whereabouts.
According to sources, Stone never received a call and the drug-testing team left the ground unaware that the player had been attempting to make contact.
The revelation, easily verified by Ferdinand's phone records, threatens to blow a hole in what could be a central plank of the player's defence that his failure to submit to a drug test was an innocent oversight which he quickly attempted to remedy.