On the face of it, it is exactly the kind of setting – Liverpool versus Manchester United, with the heat of the battle rising dangerously close to intolerable – where Rio Ferdinand can demonstrate there are still days when he can beat the new opponent in his life.
Ferdinand is 33 next month, still a formidable exponent in the art of defending but one whose talents are accompanied by the growing sense that the lights are dimming on his career faster than he would like. It is a point of his life when Ferdinand will understand what Jack Nicklaus was talking about, on his 50th birthday, when it was put to him that age is the one opponent even the greatest champion cannot beat. The older you get, Nicklaus explained, the stronger the wind gets – and suddenly you find it is always in your face.
The most elegant centre-half of his generation plays 40% of United's games these days. He still provides a calm and assurance that is ideal for facing the loathing of an Anfield crowd, but this is now a man whose career has been ambushed by injuries to the point where Fabio Capello left him out of the England squad to face Montenegro and Sir Alex Ferguson has also begun to speak of a player with diminished responsibilities.
Ferguson now uses the past tense when he reflects on Ferdinand's international career, talking of him being "a bit unfortunate" but with no questioning of Capello's decision. "Maybe Fabio is looking more to the future now. Rio is 32 now. Some managers think that way and there is nothing wrong with that, looking to the future."
Ferdinand has long-term issues with his lower back that have led to recurrent problems with his calf and hamstring muscles. He has tried acupuncture and prolotherapy injections. He has experimented with yoga and clocked up thousands of miles seeing specialists. Every so often, he returns and plays a few games. But then the cycle kicks in again: a new injury, another spell of rehab, more frustration. He has not managed four successive games for almost 11 months and the inescapable truth is that he seems to find it impossible to put together a decent run of matches. "It's a fact, and Rio knows it," Ferguson said. "We wish it was better but it's not."
For Ferdinand, it has been a long and difficult battle. Ferguson talked at length about the player's attributes – "you can't dismiss the kind of experience Rio Ferdinand brings" – and there is the definite sense, despite the occasional tweets about his favourite cartoons and inopportune farting, that the player is now at an age when he appears to have heeded the last line of his 2006 autobiography that "it's time to grow up".
But the Capello camp have been troubled for a while and the alarm bells rang the loudest when Ferdinand was left out of United's team for their last league game, against Norwich City. The previous week, he had found Peter Crouch a difficult opponent in the 1-1 draw with Stoke City. Then Basel came to Old Trafford in the Champions League and scored three times as Capello's assistant, Franco Baldini, watched from the stands. Capello decided there was no point picking Ferdinand and went for Gary Cahill as John Terry's new partner. Capello's explanation was that he picked "the player not the name" – in other words, reputations counted for nothing.
Ferdinand's sympathisers can legitimately point out Cahill plays for a Bolton Wanderers side that are bottom of the Premier League and have the worst defence in the division, with 21 goals conceded in seven games. The truth, however, is that Capello's misgivings can be traced back to another October afternoon on Merseyside two years ago and a United defeat that brought home the seriousness of Ferdinand's injury difficulties.
Until that point Ferdinand had tried to get through the pain he later admitted had left him "hunched over" in the worst moments and "shuffling around like an old man". Anfield, though, was no hiding place. Liverpool, on the back of four straight defeats and their worst run of form for 22 years, won 2-0 and anyone who has followed Ferdinand's career and admired his qualities – the touch, the speed, the anticipation and fierce competitive instincts – will scarcely have recognised the man Fernando Torres eluded for the opening goal. Ferdinand did not play again for three months. He has started 51 of the following 132 games for club and country.
Ferguson now says Ferdinand, even when fit, can no longer be considered a mandatory first-team pick. "The competition is so fierce now with these young lads, [Chris] Smalling, [Phil] Jones and [Jonny] Evans. Evans has been outstanding, Jones has been outstanding, Smalling has been outstanding. They're well aware, Rio and [Nemanja] Vidic, they are going to have to play to keep their places."
None of this is to denigrate an outstanding career, but Ferdinand appears to be assessing a possible future without United. The people who know him best say he is extremely realistic about his injury problems, and aware that if it continues to gnaw at his career it could conceivably be his final season at Old Trafford.
A move abroad appeals, particularly to Spain, where the warmer weather could help his back. The United States is another option and, regardless of the denials, there was something in the recent reports of Chicago Fire inviting him to consider a future in Major League Soccer. Tottenham, too, have made discreet inquiries. "A fit Rio is still as good as anybody," their manager, Harry Redknapp, says. "I wouldn't want to upset Fergie by talking about one of his players, but he's a good player. He's been fantastic for me. I signed him when he was a little kid [at West Ham], so I love Rio."
Ferdinand is more intrigued by the possibility of moving abroad and the hope and expectation among MLS officials is that next summer United would not want a large transfer fee for someone his age and with a year remaining on his contract. Ferdinand also believes this to be the case, making it easier for a financial package to be arranged with one of the big-city American clubs. For now, all that can be said for certain is that Ferdinand is open-minded about the idea, despite the potential wrench of leaving the club where he has spent the majority of his career. By that point, he will have been at Old Trafford for 10 years.
What has also emerged, however, is that he has been frustrated at times by Ferguson's habit of talking publicly about his injury problems and feels it has done him no favours with Capello. Last season, Ferguson said in a March press conference that Ferdinand, with a calf injury, would probably not be involved again for the rest of that campaign. As it turned out, Ferdinand was back within three weeks and played nine more games, including the Champions League final. Then Ferdinand suffered a hamstring strain on the opening weekend of this season at West Bromwich Albion and Ferguson said he would be out for six weeks. Ferdinand was back within three.
His problem for England is that Capello needs someone who will be able to play every three or four days in next summer's European Championship – and Ferdinand is clearly not that man. For United, his ability is not in question. It is just that, at the higher end of football, a thirtysomething with seemingly never-ending injury problems can find the twilight and the no-light of his career merging far too quickly.
