England manager Roy Hodgson has revealed that he wants to apologise to Rio Ferdinand after he spoke to passengers on the London Underground about the Manchester United defender.

Hodgson told commuters that Ferdinand would not be a part of his England squad for the upcoming World Cup qualifying matches but he has insisted that he never said that Ferdinand's international career was over.

Hodgson told reporters: "I'm very disappointed that a story has come out like that, but I would like to apologise to Rio because there is no way that I would like to indicate that I would not be using a player like that.

"I didn't choose him in the squad this time for the same reasons as last time, because we have other players, but I am not suggesting that this is the end of his international career.

"That is up to every player to decide for themselves, but hopefully that won't be the case here."

England named their squad to face San Marino and Poland earlier on Thursday.