Beckham Out Of England Match With Sweden
Tuesday, March 30, 2004

David Beckham has been ruled out of England's friendly against Sweden, compounding manager Sven-Goran Eriksson's injury problems.

The England captain is unavailable for the Euro 2004 warm-up in Gothenburg after injuring his calf playing for his club Real Madrid on Sunday.

He joins a host of first choice players unable to make the trip to Sweden, a list that includes Michael Owen, Kieron Dyer, Ashley Cole and Sol Campbell.

Eriksson's remaining injury concern is Manchester City winger Shaun Wright-Phillips, who missed training on Monday to have treatment on an ankle knock.

Beckham turned out in Real's 5-1 win over Sevilla after shrugging off the effects of the severe hamstring and calf bruises he picked up against Monaco in the Champions League last Wednesday which had caused him to miss training on Friday.

But he was substituted near the end of Sunday's game after a heavy tackle from Jose Luis Marti.

With Owen out with a hamstring injury his Liverpool teammate Steven Gerrard is in the running to take over the captain's role.
On the plus side for Eriksson was the presence in training of Wayne Rooney despite suffering a knock playing for Everton on Saturday.

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