32 year old former England captain David Beckham has been ruled out of the crucial qualifying matches against Israel and Russia due to a knee injury. The star who has been on the sidelines for much of the summer picked up the injury as LA Galaxy lost out to Pachuca in the Superliga final. A scan confirmed that Beckham sprained a knee ligament during the match.

According to the medical team Beckham will be out for 4-6 weeks leaving him unavailable for the Euro 2008 qualifiers in early September. He could also struggle to regain fitness ready for the October matches against Estonia and Russia.