Euro 2012: Rio Ferdinand unhappy with England manager Roy Hodgson following Gary Cahill's withdrawal

Rio Ferdinand's Twitter account has Roy Hodgson reaching for the painkillers once again.

A simple two-word tweet has again cast a shadow over England's already tentative preparations.

Ferdinand was omitted from the England squad for Euro 2012, apparently for footballing reasons, but the truth behind the omission may run deeper.

Rio Ferdinand revealed the full extent of his anger at his continued exile from the England squad with his representative accusing manager Roy Hodgson of a “total lack of respect”.

Jamie Moralee, the managing director of New Era Global Sports Management, which represents the defender, and his brother Anton, said: “Lampard, Terry, Barry, Gerrard: all ageing but they [were picked to] go to the tournament. Why is Rio different? To treat a player that has captained and served his country 81 times (in this manner) is nothing short of disgraceful. Total lack of respect from Hodgson and the FA as far as I am concerned.”

Ferdinand was snubbed again by Hodgson on Sunday after Gary Cahill was ruled out of the squad for the Euro 2012 finals having suffered a double fracture to his jaw. As expected, Hodgson called up Liverpool’s Martin Kelly to replace Cahill, who was injured when he was pushed into goalkeeper Joe Hart by Belgium’s Dries Mertens during Saturday’s final warm-up match at Wembley.

Ferdinand did not expect to be called up, and indeed flew out to Cyprus on a family holiday on Sunday from Manchester Airport, but took to the social networking site Twitter soon after the announcement was made by the F A to post the cryptic message: “What reasons?????!!!”

That was clearly a reference to the so-called “football reasons” given for his omission from the original squad with Hodgson having refuted suggestions that Ferdinand had been left out so that John Terry – who faces trial in July for allegedly racially abusing Anton Ferdinand – could be included. Terry denies the charges.

On Sunday night Piara Powar, the head of FARE, the European anti-racism commission, also stepped into the growing row by saying on Twitter: “Ditching Rio was always a risky move. Most people still can’t see how it was a football decision.”