Century last thing on Beckham's mind

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Beckham is set to make his 99th appearance for his country against Croatia in the final match of their qualifying campaign at Wembley on Wednesday evening.

Ton of pain: Beckham could miss out on Euro 2008 qualification

It could be his last international appearance if England are absent from Austria and Switzerland next summer and coach Steve McClaren pays the price by being sacked.

But Beckham has all his focus on being ready to help England progress and warned of the need to be 100% ready against Croatia, who beat England 2-0 earlier in the campaign.

He said: "Not getting to 100 caps is not preying on my mind at all. I am not thinking about that.

"All I am thinking about is the team qualifying for the competition next summer. These games are not about David Beckham reaching 100 caps.

"It is about the England team reaching the European finals and that is the most important thing, not achieving personal milestones.

"What is important, if we are given the chance, is we have to be ready for the Croatia game.

"We can't make excuses. We have to be ready for Croatia and, if other teams slip up, we need to take advantage. But we will probably need to win the game whatever has happened elsewhere."

Beckham insisted his fitness problems were behind him and that he will be ready for a second game in five days against Croatia.

"For the the opening 10-15 minutes, it was tough going out there for me but I soon got a sort of a second wind.

"The good thing is that my injury worries are gone. I feel fine and raring to go. I've got a couple of games under my belt since I got back fit and some good training and it's going okay."

McClaren believes midfielder Frank Lampard is back to his best and against Austria there were none of the boos from the 4,000 travelling fans that have greeted his recent international performances.

Lampard's Chelsea and England team-mate Joe Cole said: "Frank always does well. The manager has got tough selection problems for Wednesday, which is great for the manager.

"For me, Frank always does the business and, if he plays on Wednesday night against Croatia, he will be very important for us.

"It is never nice to hear the boos for any player. It certainly doesn't help anyone. It was good there was none of that on Friday."