Sven must not risk Beckham

BBC Sport Online chief football writer Phil McNulty insists history shows Sven-Goran Eriksson should ignore sentiment and leave David Beckham out of his World Cup squad unless he proves his full match fitness.

David Beckham is following in a rich tradition of England captains by carrying an injury in his World Cup baggage.

It is a part of England's history - a history that tells us if Beckham has not proved his full fitness he should get nowehere near the steps of the plane to the Far East.

Sven-Goran Eriksson does not appear a man given to sentiment, and no amount of scientists pointing at skeletons of the metatarsal bone, or life-size front page pictures of a foot, should persuade him otherwise.

If Beckham is not in full working order on the day England need him to prove his fitness, he should not travel.

Robson went into - and out of - the World Cup injured

He must not travel.

England managers have given in to sentiment before and paid the price.

Ron Greenwood included captain Kevin Keegan in his squad for Spain in 1982 only for a niggling back injury to flare up.

Keegan's back overshadowed England's campaign in the way Beckham's foot is threatening to do.

He was even farcically smuggled out of England's Spanish HQ to see Jurgen Rehwinkel, a physio he used in his Hamburg days.

Indispensable?

It was a cloak-and-dagger operation which back-fired, the long car drive to reach Germany only exacerbating the problem.

Keegan's Keystone Kops-style dash left England portrayed as bunglers in the media, and he only appeared for 18 minutes in the final game against Spain, when he brought the curtain down on his international career by missing a crucial open goal.

Move forward four years to Mexico and the mysterious case of Captain Marvel's shoulder.

England captain Bryan Robson travelled to South America with a shoulder problem, but such was manager Bobby Robson's faith in his namesake he took him anyway.

It invited disaster, and it duly arrived in the shape of a dislocated shoulder in the drab qualifying game against Morocco.

Robson then changed his system, helped by the sending off of Ray Wilkins in the same game, and England progressed to the quarter-final.

Paying the price

Bryan Robson also entered Italia 90 with an Achilles tendon problem, and once again failed to last the distance.

Keegan and Robson - rather like Beckham - were regarded as indispensable even though they were injured.

The managers' faith was misplaced and they paid the price.

So yes, Beckham is vital to the England cause, but not important enough for him to be given the sort of special privileges that courted trouble in the past, particularly in the case of Bryan Robson.

Of course Beckham was vital to England's World Cup progress, but no more than Michael Owen, whose goals were the real catalyst for qualification.

Keegan was a World Cup passenger

If Eriksson takes a half-fit Beckham to Korea and Japan, he will risk a dangerous and distracting side-show developing around a player who may not even take to the pitch.

Beckham is one of the few England players worthy of a certain amount of preferential treatment, but the early hysteria surrounding his metatarsal bone - which obviously we were all familiar with even before this incident - is worrying.

It smacks of the hint that Beckham should board the plane with his England team-mates even if they have to carry him on via their shoulders.

A fit David Beckham would be a fantastic asset to England - and to any country - but a half-fit version is useless.

Yes, every effort must be made to get Beckham on board the plane.

It should not, however, be done at all costs.

It doesn't work. Just ask Ron Greenwood and Bobby Robson.