 Beckham made an impressive international return recently |
David Beckham says he thought his England career was over after Steve McClaren told him he would be a "casualty" of the coach's new regime. McClaren dropped Beckham after the 2006 World Cup, before recently recalling the former England captain.
Beckham says McClaren told him over the phone: "In every team there's going to be casualties, and I'm sorry to say you're one of the casualties."
"It felt as if there was no way back," Beckham told ITV show New Beginnings.
McClaren recalled Beckham for the friendly game against Brazil and the Euro 2008 qualifier against Estonia and the former England captain played well in both games.
The LA Galaxy midfielder set up John Terry's goal in his comeback match against Brazil, and then set up two more in England's Euro 2008 qualifier in Estonia.
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Beckham said he was close to tears after the phone call to McClaren ended.
"At first it wasn't a case of proving him wrong, because I had to come to terms with what had been said and be patient," added Beckham.
"But after maybe a day or two and speaking to my friends and my family, then it was a case of 'OK, this is the situation, now how do I get myself out of it?'
Beckham made his debut for Los Angeles Galaxy when he came on as a substitute for the last 12 minutes of his club's 1-0 defeat by Chelsea over the weekend.
But, as had been expected, he was ruled out of the Galaxy's 2-1 SuperLiga win against Mexican side Pachuca on Tuesday.
The SuperLiga is an eight-team competition featuring four MLS sides from the US and four teams from the Mexican first division.
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