Rio Ferdinand likes a reality check every now and then, which is why he decided to take his family on a low-budget holiday to Butlins in Prestatyn, North Wales, while injured during last month’s international break. With that in mind, the England vice-captain will hopefully look upon a chastening evening in Dnipropetrovsk as the kick up the backside that allowed him to start his World Cup year in earnest.

It was impossible to watch Ferdinand’s error in the thirteenth minute against Ukraine, which led to a red card for Robert Green and a penalty that Andriy Shevchenko missed for the home side, without calling to mind previous errors in the friendly away to Holland in August and for Manchester United in the derby match against Manchester City last month. It has not been an impressive start to the season for a player who has missed nine out of 16 games for club and country through injury and, as such, it is hoped that it serves as some kind of wake-up call.

As with the other aberrations in recent weeks, this, as Ferdinand misjudged the flight of a long ball forward and allowed Artem Milevskiy to run through on the luckless Green, was above all an error of judgment. It was compounded by a failure to react quickly and a struggle to get to grips with the Ukraine forward. However, while some will point to a growing catalogue of errors and wonder whether this is a player on the wane, for now Ferdinand is entitled to the benefit of any doubt, his problem being a lack of sharpness, mental as well as physical.

Fabio Capello got it spot-on. “He made one mistake during the game,” the England manager said. “It was a long ball. The ball bounced and he didn’t judge the direction of the ball well. But after that he played a game, like the other players. At this moment he probably makes some mistakes, but you cannot question his value.”

It is, of course, a pragmatic response. Had this been an unproven player, guilty of such a lapse after being given the opportunity to impress on the international stage, Capello, a stickler for high standards, might have reacted differently. But this was Rio Ferdinand, one of the finest defenders in world football. The sloppiness that once blighted his reputation has resurfaced rarely in recent years, so far better for Capello to stand by him while giving just enough thought to what action to take in the unlikely event that this might come to represent the start of a decline.

Ferdinand’s error did not lead to a goal, with Shevchenko suffering a loss of nerve from the penalty spot, but it damaged England’s prospects in a game in which, with qualification already secured, they were already under attack from a Ukraine team whose destiny was there to be seized. As Green was sent off — after Damir Skomina, the Slovenian referee, initially showed the red card to Ferdinand, only to have the mistake brought to his attention by the fourth official — Aaron Lennon was asked to make way for David James, leaving England to play the remaining 77 minutes with ten men against motivated and technically proficient opposition.

England coped reasonably well in the circumstances. Capello switched to a 4-4-1 formation, with Wayne Rooney dropping back into a wide-midfield role, and his team responded with a controlled performance. The problem was that they looked vulnerable through the spine of the team. Although John Terry produced a valiant performance, the centre of England’s midfield looked weak, with Michael Carrick passing the ball nicely but struggling to assert the authority required of a top international player.

At present England are a fine team when they are dominating matches, as they did with a superb performance against Croatia at Wembley last month, but, in terms of their prospects in South Africa next summer, they need to develop the ability to withstand pressure against strong opposition. It is something that, whatever their undoubted progress under Capello, they have not yet begun to master: in his 19 matches in charge, they have kept only five clean sheets, against Trinidad & Tobago, Andorra (twice), Slovakia and Kazakhstan.

The goal on Saturday was an unlucky one — as Ashley Cole, in an attempt to block Sergiy Nazarenko’s shot, succeeded only in deflecting the ball past James — but Ukraine will feel that they could have had more. In addition to Shevchenko’s penalty miss, Yaroslav Rakitsky, with a swerving long-range shot, and Andriy Yarmolenko drew from James two highly impressive saves in the second half that will strengthen the goalkeeper’s grip on the No 1 shirt.

At the other end, England produced some decent football at times — all of it flowing through Wayne Rooney, whose performance Capello called “incredible” — but, apart from when the Manchester United forward played in Frank Lampard, who shot narrowly wide, there was a lack of real quality. Emile Heskey worked tirelessly but achieved little.

In the final qualifying match on Wednesday against Belarus at Wembley, England will have to show that they can flourish without Rooney, who has returned to United to have treatment on what is thought to be a slight calf injury. Steven Gerrard, who limped off at half-time with a groin injury, remains with the squad but may sit out the game, leaving Capello to look beyond his strongest XI.

In some ways, the final two qualifying matches have begun to seem secondary to the first of the World Cup warm-up games, against Brazil in Doha, Qatar, on November 14. But Capello cannot and will not tolerate bad habits becoming a permanent feature of his England team.

Ferdinand, not for the first time, has been warned. And while the defender’s form has been troubling in some ways, Capello is confident that this warning will be heeded.

Referee: D Skomina (Slovenia). Attendance: 31,000