Beckham Won’t Play, But He Can Finally Talk About The Ankle

By: Laurie | August 5th, 2007

At last, some semi-straight talk about the ankle.

The Galaxy finally seems to have figured out that they were doing more damage by being silent than by being truthful, so David Beckham held an all-about-the-ankle press conference yesterday at last. What changed Galaxy management’s way of thinking? Possibly articles like this one from FoxSports.

And according to sources inside the Galaxy, even his teammates are kept in the dark as to how his ankle is progressing. They’re not allowed in the training room when he’s receiving treatment — and the reason for this is that the Galaxy management is terrified of leaks.

They don’t want us to know how badly he’s injured as that would be the PR gaffe of the century. In fact, the Galaxy currently have enough egg on their faces over this ‘Beckhamania’ to open up their own Denny’s.

And then, since the Galaxy was releasing no info on the injury, the writer goes on to play armchair doctor, along with, “my coaching mentor, Bill Songhurst, who actually treated Beckham as a fourteen-year old and we’re saying that it isn’t a sprain at all.”

Ouch. Could there be a bigger PR debacle?

Fortunately the Galaxy powers-on-high have finally realized that silence wasn’t cutting it for fans who have invested millions in jersey and ticket sales in the name of Beckhamania. So yesterday we got The All-Ankle Press Conference:

Beckham gave a blow-by-blow on the injury, with the preamble: “This is going to take a while.”

He sprained the left ankle in England’s game against Estonia on June 6, then suffered pulled ligaments when he played for Real Madrid four days later. The ligaments were ripped in Madrid’s season finale June 17 when he played with three painkilling injections.

“Fitness-wise I’m fine. It’s just the ankle is still swollen.”

The injury is also awkward because it is his left ankle, which he used to plant in striking the ball with his right leg.

Beckham said he had never taken an injection before, but broke with tradition because the Spanish title was on the line. “I would have done anything to play in that game. It wasn’t healthy, it wasn’t maybe the right thing to do longterm, but I did it and at the end of the day, I’m glad I did it because I played in a game for 65 minutes and we ended up winning the league.”

Correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t it the guy who subbed in for Becks who scored the goals in that Madrid game? Sure, I can understand the desire to play, and even to play injured, but it sure seems like a waste, particularly given the almost criminal lack of treatment he got from Madrid afterwards.

So when will we see Beckham on the field? Well, if you’re in DC, don’t hold your breath:

The 32-year-old midfielder said he will need another week to 10 days to reach match fitness leaving him doubtful for the Galaxy’s next game on Thursday against D.C. United.

(Thanks to Diane who provided the links, keeping me on top of things while I was off celebrating my anniversary.)