COMMONWEALTH Games silver medallist Melanie Purkiss has told Rio Ferdinand: "Count yourself lucky you're not in athletics - you could be banned for two years!"

The 24-year-old Team Solent track star insists that drug testing is so important to her she'd be happy to be tested every day if it helped keep her sport squeaky-clean.

Ferdinand faces a possible FA charge for 'forgetting' to take a drugs test in Manchester last month, claiming he was moving house at the time though he was spotted shopping that afternoon.

As a result, he was controversially omitted from the England squad for tonight's Euro 2004 winner-takes-all showdown in Turkey.

Whatever happens to the Old Trafford star, he is unlikely to be banned for two years - the punishment that Otterbourne-based Purkiss, who starred for her country in last year's 4 x 400m relay event in Manchester, wants to see brought in for all sports.

"In athletics the people who carry out drug testing can turn up whenever they want unannounced. They've turned up at my house and the training ground as they have access to your training programmes," she explained.

"I've been at home revising for exams before and there's been a knock on the door. You want to say 'oh go away' but you don't because you want to prove you're clean. The more clean tests you have, the better it is.

"I'd be happy to be drug tested every day if it helped rid the sport of those who cheat.

"If they turned up at university I'd say 'well it's not ideal to do it here, I'll be at home at 2pm' and you then have an obligation to be there.

"If you miss a test, it goes down as a positive result and you can get banned for two years.

"In athletics you're obviously tested more during the season, but the top athletes might be tested every week. If that helps get rid of the cheats, then I'm all for it."

Saints players, like all Premiership footballers, are regularly visited unannounced by UK Sport, the body charged with overseeing the drugs tests. Those tests have become more regular in recent seasons.

Purkiss added: "I do have some sympathy with Rio Ferdinand, it might be that he's got a legitimate reason for missing the test, his car might have got stuck in traffic.

"But in our sport, as I said, if you didn't make a test it would be a positive result.

"I wouldn't say Rio has got off lightly, he's been left out of an England squad for a major match.

"The top footballers are busy people, and they're only human - they have to move house like all of us and it's a stressful time.

"But people who take drugs might not turn up for tests. If they had something to hide, they might miss a sample.

"I'm not saying Rio did that - it will be annoying for him if he's never taken any drugs that people will start to question him.

"But hopefully now there will be some common rules and guidelines drawn up for all sports.

"In athletics you can appeal against a drugs ban. If your explanation of why you didn't turn up to a test is accepted, if it was through a genuine mistake, then you could be let off."