Beckham: I'm up for the Cup

David Beckham has revealed that the World Cup was the one motivation keeping him going through "the biggest test" of his career.

A week into treatment for a broken foot suffered against Deportivo La Coruna, the England skipper delivered an upbeat message in his race to make this summer's finals in Japan and Korea.

But the 26-year-old virtually ruled himself out of Manchester United's bid for the Champions League. "The World Cup is the one thing that's motivating me - it's the light at the end of the tunnel," he said.

"It's the biggest mental test of my career - I haven't had a bad injury before. I've had a few tests over my career, physically and mentally, and I've come through them quite well. This is just another one. But there are a load of more important things going on around the world than my left foot.

"A lot of people have mentioned England, but no one's mentioned that I'm missing a semi-final in the Champions League and that for me at the moment is the upsetting thing. Unless anything drastically goes wrong they've given me a timescale of six to eight weeks. There's seven weeks to the first World Cup game so we'll have to wait and see.

Beckham, who said he heard his foot "crack" moments after the tackle from Deportivo's Pedro Duscher, held no lasting grudge against the Argentinian.

He added: "I think it was a bad tackle but the player rang me and apologised and said he didn't mean to hurt me, and I accepted his apology."