Fabio Capello has been speaking with Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand and is confident the Red Devils ace will be fit by next month. The England coach has been in touch with the 31-year-old stopper and has been given a upbeat bulletin in his recent progress.

"I spoke with Rio last week and he was good. He is very confident he will be able to play after January 15," he continued.

"He told me he is really, really happy because he has no pain and he has started to train."

The Italian has also confirmed he plans on doing plenty of training with the new World Cup ball ahead of the summer's prestigious tournament.

He believes the main difference between the upcoming tournament and previous ones will be the ball and wants his squad to get fully acquainted with feel and flight of the new design.

"The one thing that has really changed is the ball," he explained.

"With this ball it is possible to shoot from long distances and that will be a big problem for the keeper so it will be important for us to train and get used to the World Cup ball.

"That will be really important, not only to learn to play with the ball but also do it at altitude, because the bounce is different and the characteristics of the ball is different.

"You have to understand exactly what happens when you have to play in Pretoria, Johannesburg or Rustenburg where you are at over 1500m."

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