Rio Ferdinand in Piers Morgan Twitter hoax

Rio Ferdinand has fooled his Twitter followers into believing that he was reprimanded for cyberbullying Piers Morgan.

Ferdinand and CNN chatshow host Morgan clashed earlier today after Morgan pointed out the footballer's spelling mistakes, which led Ferdinand to say that he would give the former Britain's Got Talent judge "a big open hand slap".

The Manchester United defender then attempted to get "#piershasmoobs" trending on the micro-blogging site, writing: "Let's get #piershasmoobs trending tweeps RT #piershasmoobs let's av iiiiiiiiiit! (sic)"

However, shortly afterwards, the footballer posted: "A Twitter rep just called and said can I hold back on piers as it seems I'm cyber bullying...I apologise if that's how it seems! #thetruth."

The story was picked up by a number of publications and provoked a large response from Twitter users.

Dismissing the incident as a prank, Ferdinand then tweeted: "The word gullible comes to mind!!!! Sucked right in!!! #piershasmoobs !!"

Ferdinand then added: "Wow the media need to relax tweeps!! Get a grip!"

The former England captain has regularly taken to Twitter over the past year to share his views on everything from Big Brother 11 contestant Keeley Johnson's WAG denials to the Sky Sports sexism row involving Andy Gray and Richard Keys.