Our mate Bobby Charlton speaks again:
"Rio's a world-class player who's been taken out of our team and we've had difficulty filling that gap," he said.
"We've been leaking goals. It would be very nice to get him back early. I am hopeful and it would be good for us."
A word of warning from Matt Dickinson in The Times:
Ferdinand’s case will be decided by a three-man panel made up of two senior FA councillors and chaired by Ian Mill, QC, an independent barrister. It remains to be seen whether they will take any notice of Article 63 of Fifa’s disciplinary code, which advises a year-long ban for any player who refuses to undergo a test or, as in Ferdinand’s case, fails to appear for one. Sepp Blatter, the Fifa president, will be watching developments over the next 72 hours but there is no obligation on the appeals panel to bow to football’s world governing body.
Assuming that the Ferdinand saga is laid to rest this week, the FA will announce a new tariff of penalties for drugs cases at the end of the month. Yesterday, Soho Square took the first step in overhauling the disciplinary process by announcing a new system, to be introduced next season.