David Beckham may be back training full-time with the L.A. Galaxy, but team GM Alexi Lalas says he’s unlikely to return against Toronto FC this weekend. “The good news is that he is training and doing everything that all the other players are doing,” Lalas told Reuters in a telephone interview on Thursday. “I doubt he will play a role in the game this weekend but we will certainly look to have him play a part in the game on Thursday, if he continues to train and things go well.”
Beckham has been out nearly six weeks with a knee injury sustained while playing in the SuperLiga final against Pachuca. L.A. is eleventh in the overall league standings and must win its remaining three games to keep its playoff hopes alive. On Saturday the Galaxy plays last-place Toronto FC at home, followed by the New York Red Bulls (home) on Thursday and the Chicago Fire (away) next weekend.
L.A. earned itself a shot at the playoffs by reeling off four wins in a row. “It’s wonderful,” Lalas said of the streak, “but it shouldn’t mask what has so far been a sub-par year.” The former national team defender said he didn’t regret playing Beckham while he was nursing an injury earlier in the year, although Lalas suggests that he felt pressured into doing it. “Ideally, if [Beckham] were to come here in July and recognizing that he wasn’t 100 percent, we would have shut him down for the month and not played him at all,” he said.