David Haye has told crocked Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand to focus on the 2014 World Cup.

Ferdinand is expected to return from South Africa this week after a knee injury suffered in training ruled him out of the World Cup last weekend. He will be 35 when the next World Cup comes around in Brazil in 2014.

But WBA heavyweight champion Haye, 29, told the Daily Star Sunday: "As soon as I heard about Rio's injury the thing that came to my mind was when I had my whole world lined up for one night against Klitschko.

"Then, a couple weeks before the world title fight with him, I had to pull out with a back injury. I couldn't do anything. I thought my world had ended but it has worked out okay for me since, because I won the world title later in the year against Valuev and hopefully the same can happen to Rio. All I wanted to do was lie in a room with the curtains closed, so my thoughts are with him right now because I know what he is going through.

"There's not much anyone can say to make him feel better and you don't want to talk to anyone, so I just texted him on the day I heard he had been injured. I told him about my injury a year back and he's how you expect him to be.

"A lot of things go through your mind, mostly negative. It's a long time to the next World Cup but what he does have on his side is that he's a clean-living person. He could play on to his mid-thirties and play in another World Cup. He's not your stereotypical footballer in that you don't hear about him going out getting caned, drinking in nightclubs until the early hours every weekend and that will work for him.

"I talk to him regularly and I know how much it meant to him. But I think he can still play in another World Cup and he can still become a world champion like me.

"I know how he feels because the same thing happened to me when I got injured in training for Klitschko last year. Rio's the best in the world at what he does. He's England's captain and he was our main guy. He was the last line of defence so it's a real gutter for England.

"We need someone who is 6ft 3in and up for it. He intimidates players and they don't want to get tackled by him. But we have got to try to move forward now. He was a good leader of the team, now the others have got to bring their A game.

"But I have got my fingers crossed we can still do it without Rio.

"We both grew up in the same part of east London - he's from Peckham and I'm from Bermondsey, down the road. Our parents know each other and I knew him as a kid."