David Beckham Hurt His Ankle and Won’t Play

David Beckham will not make his debut for the Galaxy against Chelsea at the Home Depot Center on Saturday as planned. Everything depends on the status of his injured left ankle, and on Monday it was still swollen and sore. Beckham injured the ankle while playing for England in a Euro 2008 qualifying game against Estonia in early June, and was still suffering the effects when he helped Real Madrid win the Spanish league championship on June 17.

"With ankles, they do tend to clear up pretty quickly, if there’s no structural damage, which there isn’t," Coach Frank Yallop said. "It’s just that swelling and that soreness that he’s got to get out of his system."

Once Beckham is playing again, it’s hard to imagine Galaxy losing even a single game. He’s like the Orkin man snuffing out an ant colony.