Rio Ferdinand claims he grew his famous cornrows in a bid to "prove his innocence" after he was slapped with an eight-month ban for missing a drugs test at Manchester United.
The Englishman was just over a year into his career at Old Trafford when he left United's Carrington training ground at lunchtime, accidentally missing a scheduled drugs test. The incident occurred in September 2003 and although Ferdinand later took the test and passed, the Football Association (FA) Disciplinary Committee imposed an eight-month ban and £50,000 fine.
The Red Devils unsuccessfully appealed the decision and the centre-back went on to miss the remainder of the season, Euro 2004 with England and the start of the 2004/05 campaign. That was despite Ferdinand attempting to further prove his innocence by growing out his hair.
The defender had short hair throughout his first season at United, dying it blonde at times, but made his eventual return against Liverpool in September 2004 sporting cornrows. In a frank reflection of what went on at the time of his ban, Ferdinand explained that he hoped to have a hair follicle test taken to clear his name.
"The reason I got cornrows was the drugs test," the 43-year-old told Stripped with Specs & Vuj YouTube channel. "I got banned for missing the drugs tests and to prove my innocence that I hadn't taken any form of substance, I had to let my hair get to two inches so that I could take a hair follicle test that goes back a year or 18 months.
"A guy comes to the training ground to do the drugs test and I forgot that he was there and went out for lunch. I looked at my messages and realised I'd missed it. I said I was coming back but they'd already left and it all kicked off from there really."
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Ultimately, the FA rejected Ferdinand's offer to have a hair follicle test and he served the entire eight-month ban before returning to action in a 2-1 victory over Liverpool. The former Three Lions star - a bona fide Premier League legend - still feels aggrieved over the way the saga unfolded, claiming his punishment was more severe than the ones dished out to others who missed drugs tests.
Ferdinand added: "I'll never forgive them for the way I was treated. People had done worse and very similar to what I'd done and didn't get treated like that. I might end up doing an exclusive show on it one day because I think there's a lot of football fans out there that think there's no smoke without fire."
