Thanks for the memories Dave....

As the whole of planet earth probably knows by now, David Beckham will not be at this summer’s world cup. An Achilles injury has cruelly robbed a nation not just of its talismanic former captain, but also of the opportunity to feverously speculate about his inclusion in the squad – something that’s become a national obsession over the last 10 years.

How on earth will the country cope without contributing to internet votes, radio phone-ins and heated pub debates about whether Beckham should have a place in Fabio Capello’s final squad of 23 or not? The red tops must surely be mourning the tragic loss of their content for the next two months. Perhaps they could have another shake of the John Terry tree to see what more scandal falls out? On second thoughts, a gentle nudge should suffice.

But Beckham’s absence from the England squad will affect more than the tabloid headlines – despite his reputation as a media whore whose impact on the pitch is far outweighed by his ability to look pretty in advertisements.

Beckham showed in last week’s cameo performance at Old Trafford that he can still whip in devilishly dangerous crosses at will, and remains a rare commodity in English football – an England player who knows how to keep the ball. Oh how the likes of Lennon, Walcott and especially Wright-Phillips would love to have old Golden Balls’ crossing ability and tactical intelligence.

At 34, doubts obviously persist about his stamina but if the truth be told, Capello was unlikely to use him from the start in any case. What he has proved at Milan though (and perhaps surprisingly so given his much vaunted lack of pace), is that he’s as useful a substitute as there is to have. Someone who can keep the ball, is deadly at set pieces and possesses a work-rate like few others would be a certainty for the majority of the other 31 teams heading to South Africa this summer. Given Italy’s ageing squad, they’d probably proclaim him as the bright young star of a new generation, before building the team around him.

But it’s not just on the pitch where Beckham’s presence will be missed. With three world cups and two European championships under his belt, Beckham knows the pressures and pitfalls of being cooped up in a tournament training camp for weeks on end better than most. As a young man he watched Paul Gascoigne self destruct as Glenn Hoddle chose not to select him for France ’98, whilst he bore the brunt of hysterical adoration from fanatical home fans at Japan/South Korea in ’02. Last time out in Germany, he almost single-handedly carried the squad as his wife led her own team of WAGs through the designer stores and restaurants of Baden Baden.

His calming influence off the pitch and comfort with the media would have allowed the others to get on with their day jobs of implementing Fabio Capello’s tactics and sleeping with each other’s wives. Regardless of who wears the armband come kick off time in June, there would have only been one real captain had Beckham had been fit enough to make the plane. Actually, I’m sure he’ll still be fit enough to physically walk up the stairs to the plane, but anything else might be a bit of a stretch.

And so for the first time since a Tory government ruled the country and teams known as West Germany, the USSR and Czechoslovakia took part, England will head to a world cup without David Beckham. He may well have even played his last game for England and if that is the case, international football – not just England – will have lost one of its most iconic and best players of a generation. A generation that has already lost the likes of Zinedine Zidane, Luis Figo and judging by his performance at Old Trafford last week, Ronaldinho.

But whilst we can, and should be, sad at the probable passing of David Beckham’s England career, England’s world cup hopes are far from over. The reason for which is a prematurely balding Liverpudlian by the name of Wayne Rooney. In the form of his life – or anyone else’s for that matter – Rooney has the potential to almost single-handedly drag England to the latter stages of the world cup.

At present, England are a very good team with one absolute genius: Wayne Rooney. We don’t like to praise our players in the way we laud those with exotic sounding names and who ply their trade in Spain and Italy, but Rooney is probably currently millimetres ahead of Lionel Messi as the planet’s best player at the moment. If he sustains anything like the kind of form he’s currently in, England will have half a chance of only getting knocked out on penalties in the semi-finals this year.

In past world cups, one outstanding individual talent has dragged his teammates to the latter stages of the tournament. Maradona succeeded in doing it on both 1986 and 1990, whilst Zinedine Zidane confirmed his place amongst the greats with a series of mesmerising performances in 1998. Is it beyond the realms of possibility to think Wayne Rooney could join those illustrious names this year?