Rio Ferdinand's representative has accused the Football Association and England manager Roy Hodgson of treating the defender with "a total lack of respect" after the Manchester United defender suffered another Euro 2012 snub.
The FA confirmed earlier that Gary Cahill had been ruled out of the tournament after fracturing his jaw in two places during the friendly win over Belgium at Wembley.
It meant Hodgson had another space to fill in his squad, having already used his standby defender, Phil Jagielka, to replace Gareth Barry last week.
Ferdinand, 33, would have been the obvious choice given his vast experience, a commodity which England have lost so much of following the injuries to Barry and fellow central midfielder Frank Lampard in the past week.
Instead Hodgson has gone for Liverpool youngster Martin Kelly, who made his international debut as a substitute in the final two minutes of the win in Norway on May 26.
Hodgson faced a barrage of questions when naming his squad on May 16 about whether he had snubbed Ferdinand because of concerns the defender would not be able to get along with John Terry, in light of Terry's impending court case for alleged racist remarks to Ferdinand's brother Anton at Loftus Road in October. Terry denies the charge against him.
And it appears the Ferdinand camp feel there is more to the decision than simply "footballing reasons", the grounds Hodgson gave for leaving the Manchester United man out of his initial squad.
Ferdinand's representative and long-standing friend Jamie Moralee said: "Lampard, Terry, Barry, Gerrard; all aging but they go to the tournament.
"Why is Rio different?
"To treat a player that has captained and served his country 81 times (in this manner) is nothing short of disgraceful. Total lack of respect from Hodgson and the FA as far as I am concerned."
And for Cahill it means his misery at an incident condemned by Hodgson, after Dries Mertens deliberately shoved the defender into Joe Hart, is largely being ignored.
Mertens has at least expressed remorse for his part in the incident, issuing an apology on his Twitter page.
The PSV Eindhoven forward wrote: "I sincerely apologize for the harm I've cost to Cahill. When in the heat of the moment, you often don't think about the consequences.
"My thoughts go out to him and I hope he recovers well!"
After Jordan Henderson's call-up last week, the inclusion of Kelly means England will leave for Poland and Ukraine with over a quarter of their squad made up by Liverpool players whose performance was so bad last season that manager Kenny Dalglish ended up being sacked.
