Injured Beckham set to sit out Galaxy clash with Chelsea

The 32-year-old is in line to make his bow against the Blues on Saturday but has been nursing left ankle ligament damage he suffered during England's Euro 2008 qualifier against Estonia in June and subsequently aggravated as Real Madrid won the Spanish league title.

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The ankle swelled up during the flight from London to Los Angeles last Thursday and despite a weekend of massage and treatment, Beckham could not take a full part in Galaxy's open training session at the Home Depot Center last night in front of around 2,000 fans.

Speaking after training, Galaxy head coach Frank Yallop said the situation was being monitored regularly.

"Right now, he's day to day," Yallop said.

"He's not done too much the last two days. His ankle is quite swollen but we're hoping it recovers quickly and he can have some part in the game on Saturday."

After jogging briefly with the squad at the start of the session, Beckham split from the main group to work individually with a trainer, doing some stretching and balance work to strengthen his ankle.

He then went through short passing drills with fellow Galaxy injury victim Chris Albright before watching on as the rest of the squad took part in a short practice match.

At the end of the session, the midfielder was all smiles as he left the pitch with the rest of the squad but did not speak to the media.

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Saturday's friendly against Chelsea is already sold out and will be broadcast live across the United States by cable sports network ESPN, who have been strongly promoting the game with plans for using 19 cameras at the Home Depot Center, including a Beckham cam.

However Yallop, whose side kick-off the World Series of Football tournament tonight against Mexican side Tigres, insisted that there would be no pressure on Beckham to play if he was not ready.

"Obviously we want to get him on the field as quickly as we can but we don't want to put him in danger of re-injuring himself," he added.

"The injury has responded in the last few days. It was a long flight and it swelled up pretty bad and today he was not as comfortable as he should have been.

"But it's an injury that will quickly heal up as he hasn't got any structural damage.

"Each day it gets better and better so we're hoping that it's going to clear up by the end of the week and he can participate."