Beckham blow devastates fans

Beckham's injury has stunned England fans

By BBC Sport Online's Tom Fordyce
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Metatarsal? Twenty-four hours ago, it was a word few of us could spell, let alone have sleepless nights over.

Now the mere mention of it is enough to make England fans weep bitter tears of despair.

Rearrange the letters and you get "alarm state", which is exactly how we felt when Pedro Duscher went flying in.

Becks celebrates with fans after sealing qualification

We all hoped Beckham was crying wolf yet again. The way he limped to the touchline on Wednesday night was even vaguely reassuring.

After all, last week in Spain he did not even make it that far.

In the first leg of the quarter-final, the stretcher came on and the hands went up to the face to try to hide the tears, and all of us watching silently soiled our undergarments.

Finding out the next day that Becks had recovered sufficiently to be able to walk onto the plane home was like discovering your girlfriend kissing a strange man, only to find out it was her long-lost gay friend Simon.

The initial surge of anger and panic was suddenly replaced by a flood of relief and even a wry chuckle.

The old boy had even strolled off the plane wearing flip-flops. Flip-flops! We were expecting a plaster cast!

Looking back, the nation should have halted the raising of glasses and started grabbing every available rosary, rabbit's foot and four-leafed clover.

Is this man's World Cup over before it has begun?

Gyspy women at railway stations across England can expect record takings for the sale of sprigs of heather.

The modern-day England fan has to know as much about physiology as four-four-two.

Michael Owen clearly is not fit, let alone in Owen-esque goal-scoring form.

But there is a good chance he will actually make it onto the flight to the Far East without the aid of crutches.

We can at least delude ourselves that Owen will miraculously rediscover the magic of Munich in time to lay Sweden and Argentina to the sword.

Thanks to Duscher, a man who will not even get in the Argentina side, any hopes of winning the World Cup have now gone.

The answer lay in that word metatarsal all along. "Slam a treat" indeed.

The excitement that has been building as the tournament approaches has been dissipated.

There'll still be a footballing feast to watch in South Korea and Japan, of course.

When the flag comes off, the news remains the same

It's just we'll have to watch someone else rather than Sven-Goran Eriksson's boys bringing home the bacon.

There will be people in the UK who won't have greeted news of Beckham's injury by kicking the dog and assaulting the postman.

There have already been messages from a few uncharitable characters north of the border who are delighted at the derailing of England's hopes.

That is understandable. When you have been forced to seek midfield inspiration through the crabby performances of John Collins and Colin Cameron, strange things can happen to the football part of your brain.

We'll leave the final words to the mysterious depths of that metatarsal word once again.

"A tart's lame?"

Yes he is, and the world's a sadder place for it.