England's Football Association (FA) has scrapped a Thursday deadline to deal with the case of Rio Ferdinand's missed drugs test.
The England and Manchester United defender missed the random test last month at his club's Carrington training ground.
The player has since denied using drugs and condemned their use in sport.
"In the interests of all parties concerned and football in general, the FA will proceed through all of the facts with due diligence before making any decision as to what further steps within the process may be," the FA said in a statement on its website today.
"Therefore we will not be setting any deadlines as to when The FA will make any announcement concerning their decision on reviewing the evidence."
Though he passed a dope test 36 hours after the scheduled one, Ferdinand was excluded from the England squad for their Euro 2004 qualifier in Turkey on October 11th on the orders of FA chief executive Mark Palios.
That move, which was sharply criticised by United and the players' union, prompted days of off-field turmoil, with the England players threatening to carry out an unprecedented strike if Ferdinand was not reinstated to the squad.
The crisis was averted when the FA made it clear it would not back down, but only after the players had issued a damning statement claiming they had been "let down" by their governing body.