England has a surprise in store for Beckham, Terry says

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

If David Beckham gets on the field on Saturday against Slovakia at Wembley, defender John Terry, the player who replaced Beckham as England’s national team captain, said the squad has a surprise in store for the Galaxy and AC Milan midfielder.

By appearing in the match, even if only as a substitute, Beckham would be making his 109th appearance for England, breaking the record for a field player he currently shares with Bobby Moore.

Terry said he would consider giving the captain’s armband to Beckham if he plays, adding that it would be ‘a fantastic achievement’ for Beckham to surpass Moore. Beckham would then be only 16 games shy of the all-time record of 125 England appearances set by goalkeeper Peter Shilton.

Beckham is unlikely to start, England Coach Fabio Capello having preferred to use him off the bench in recent matches, but if he did, it would be his 100th start for the national team. It is more likely, though, that Aaron Lennon would start and Beckham would enter in the second half.

England is using the friendly to prepare for next Wednesday’s potentially troublesome World Cup qualifying game against Ukraine, also at Wembley.

-- Grahame L. Jones