Beckham's injury will have international impact

David Beckham, who was set to become the first England player to compete in four straight World Cups, will not participate in South Africa 2010 after rupturing his left Achilles tendon in a game with AC Milan on Sunday night.

It's a crushing blow for Beckham, who put himself through a punishing schedule over the past 15 months, shuttling between three teams (Milan, England and the Los Angeles Galaxy) in an attempt to satisfy his paymasters while fulfilling the mandate of England coach Fabio Capello that he play at the highest club level in order to be considered for the World Cup team.

Now that's gone, which is sad if you care about this sport. If you strip away the glitz of the Beckham Brand, Beckham himself is a player's player, and his dream of taking the field in South Africa was always genuine, so much so that he was willing to subject himself to weeks away from his family in Milan, to dip into his own pocket for his loan deal, to throw his 34-year-old body headlong into demands that, ultimately, it could not withstand.

Beckham probably would not have started for England at this World Cup. But he almost certainly would have been a regular late-game substitute, a wily veteran who could still change a game with a few well-placed crosses into the box or a swerving free kick still considered among the world's best. By all accounts, Beckham was also a useful presence in the England locker room, no small attribute on a team wracked of late by leadership issues. (If anything, the abortive captaincy of John Terry, stripped after his affair with a teammate's ex-partner, has made Beckham's five-year captaincy look even better.)