Manchester United hero Rio Ferdinand has apologised to Phil Jones after criticising the defender for staying with the club last week.

Ferdinand's claims sparked a major backlash from peers and United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.

The Champions League winner has now backed down from his comments, though with the qualifier of blaming United's comms team for not making public the extent of Jones' injuries. This despite Solskjaer and No2 Mike Phelan on multiple occasions speaking openly about Jones' battle to overcome serious injury.

He said: "The one area where I would apologise to Phil Jones and anyone at Manchester United who has been a part of his journey.

"From speaking to people behind the scenes last week, he's had real issues with injuries.

"To the extent that Bruno Fernandes only trained with him for the first time last week - so that tells you how long he's been injured.

"So I didn't know that, that's not been communicated to the public. So from that stand point, for someone who's been injured, knowing what that does to you from a mental point of view, I hold my hands up and I apologise."