Football news - Raheem Sterling 'hung out to dry' by Gareth Southgate, claims Rio Ferdinand

Sterling has been dropped from the England side for their clash with Montenegro on Thursday night at Wembley, which is set to be a momentous occasion as the country's 1,000th international.

But the City winger will have to watch from the stands after Southgate came down hard on him for squaring up to Joe Gomez while on England duty, an incident that was a continuation of a spat during Liverpool's 3-1 win over the Premier League champions on Sunday.

However, the punishment is said to have been poorly received by the rest of the squad and Ferdinand, who played 81 times for England himself, reckons it was unnecessarily public.

"Keep it behind closed doors and deal with it internally surely," said Ferdinand, despite his previous revelations that club rivalries tore England squads he was a part of apart.

"Let’s be honest now this kind of stuff isn’t uncommon in squads full of testosterone.

"In the various squads I have been a part of I have seen players get punched in the face, ribs broken, nose busted, head kicked like a football.

"A throat grab was the equivalent of the intricate handshake embraces that are all too familiar today!"

Ferdinand is now concerned that by making a public example of Sterling, he opens the 24-year-old up to abuse online beyond that which he has already received in his career.

"Now Raheem is left to defend himself from all of the haters that had had their keyboards [sic] turnt off due to him becoming a very worthy ambassador for the English game, and rightly so," Ferdinand added.

"If this was a terrible incident then I would be all for public shaming & discipline. But for this ‘throat grab’ that we are TOLD it’s for I can’t understand it.

"Gareth would no doubt had seen worse many times during his time as a player and manager.

"I just feel this could and should have been handled better to support the player and not hang him out to dry.

"One of our world class players who has conducted himself wonderfully through racism and unwarranted criticism in an England shirt will now come under more scrutiny and be vilified in the media no doubt - when this could have been dealt with internally."