McClaren plans Becks meeting

England boss Steve McClaren is planning to travel to America to meet David Beckham and see for himself the standard in Major League Soccer.

Beckham is yet to make his MLS debut for LA Galaxy after failing to shrug off the ankle injury he aggravated against Estonia in June.

The former Manchester United star seems almost certain to miss Thursday's encounter with DC United and is a major doubt for England's friendly with Germany on 22nd August.

Struggling

"I know David has been struggling with injury and has not played yet but I intend to go over and have a chat with him to see how he is," said McClaren

"I definitely need to speak with his coach (Frank Yallop) and the director of football (Alexei Lalas) as well, but I also need to watch an MLS game in the flesh and have a look at the standard.

"A lot of people have been writing things about the standard of football over there.

"But I need to see it myself and make that judgement rather than other people."

Watching brief

McClaren is also planning to see as many Premier League games as he can in the next week before naming his side squad to face Germany a week on Friday.

"The good thing is I can make the trip to see David without missing anything back here," added McClaren.

"I will be back for the opening games on Saturday and I will also be at matches on Sunday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

"This week was the best chance I had to get over. So, while I hope David will be involved, at least I will get a chance to speak with him."