Rio Ferdinand: John Terry acted like an "idiot" during racial incident with brother

Old wounds don't always heal. Just ask former Manchester United star Rio Ferdinand.

The QPR defender says former England teammate John Terry acted like "an idiot" when the Chelsea star was accused of racially abusing Ferdinand's brother, Anton, three years ago.

Ferdinand made the comment in his upcoming autobiography. The Guardian obtained an excerpt, via the Sun, detailing Rio's feelings on the matter:

For me, the biggest idiot will always be John Terry. As England captain and my centre-back partner he could have saved everyone a lot of pain by admitting immediately he used the word in the heat of the moment, but was no racist.

I think that’s probably what happened and what the truth is. Anton and I would’ve accepted that - instead he never gave us a chance. That was the betrayal. He tried to run away from what he had done.

Rio's international career was basically derailed by the incident, with manager Roy Hodgson opting to avoid the potentially volatile defensive partnership of Ferdinand and Terry for Euro 2012. 

Ferdinand also leveled criticism at childhood friend Ashley Cole, who chose to support his Chelsea teammate during the five-day trial at Westminster magistrates’ court in the summer of 2012. 

Ashley Cole had long been a friend of mine. We’ve known each other since we were kids. But for me it ended the day he decided to go to court in support of John Terry. Anton rang me and my head nearly blew off. He was betraying Anton, who he’d also known for years.

Terry was handed a four-game ban and fined £220,000 ($357,800 US) for his role in the incident.