David Beckham to face ankle surgery today in Turku

Achilles tendon injury effectively rules out World Cup appearance; sports surgery specialist Sakari Orava confident of a full recovery

Sakari Orava

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AC Milan and England midfielder David Beckham will be making an unscheduled and probably very unwelcome trip to Finland today, to undergo surgery on a ruptured Achilles tendon, suffered in last night's 1-0 Serie A win over Chievo Verona.
      He will be operated on in Turku this afternoon by Sakari Orava, an acknowledged expert in the field of orthopaedic sports medicine.
      Although the nature of the tear to Beckham's tendon will only become fully clear on the operating table, Orava notes that it is a routine procedure taking roughly an hour, and involves sewing the broken ends back together.
     
Beckham pulled up in the closing minutes of the match in obvious distress, and apparently knew immediately that he had done real damage to his left ankle.
      The injury was not caused by a bad tackle, but rather the player was alone and in space when his leg gave way.
      It was only Beckham's second game for AC Milan after a loan deal was fixed up with his current owners Los Angeles Galaxy, largely designed to keep Beckham in the frame for a possible World Cup shot in Fabio Capello's England squad..
     
The 34-year-old midfielder can now almost certainly forget any hopes of involvement in the England side at the forthcoming finals in South Africa - the World Cup campaign begins in June and three months will be all too soon for a return to competitive football.
      Sakari Orava, who was contacted by the AC Milan staff immediately last night as soon as the extent of the injury was apparent, notes that in principle such problems are generally not difficult to repair, but time is definitely not on Beckham's side as far as South Africa is concerned.
      "The finals are probably a rather unrealistic target. But if the tear proves to be a simple one and the operation goes well, he might at least be be able to offer moral support to the team from the substitute's bench."
      Under normal circumstances it will take three months before a player is fit to resume training, and at least another month, possibly more, to get back to match fitness. And this is assuming all goes exactly according to plan.
     
On the other hand, Orava - who has enormous experience of treating sporting luminaries for similar injuries - has no doubts that Beckham will make a full recovery in due course.
      Nevertheless, if he is out of the game for six months or more, there will inevitably be questions about his motivation to continue his playing career - Beckham had hoped to make his England farewell this summer in the World Cup squad, and would have been taking part in the finals for a historic fourth successive time.
     
Although he has won a great deal in his club career, mostly with Manchester United before he signed for Real Madrid in 2003, David Beckham has not enjoyed the smoothest of rides at the World Cup during his 115 appearances in an England shirt.
      In 1998 at the finals in France he was famously sent off in England's penalty shootout defeat to Argentina, resulting in much hostility from supporters and the media.
      In 2002 in Japan and South Korea, although he was by this time the team captain and thoroughly rehabilitated in the public mind, he was only partially fit after suffering a broken metatarsal bone while playing for Manchester United, while in 2006 in Germany he went off injured in the quarter-final game against Portugal which England went on to lose on penalties.
      Shortly after the defeat, Beckham announced he was resigning the captaincy.
     
The news of Beckham's injury spread instantly and was the #1 item in the UK media on Monday morning.
      His misfortune has been met with general sadness in the sport: it is hardly the Hollywood scenario that some might have wished for a footballer whose global brand-recognition - he is also married to former Spice Girl Victoria Adams - is second to none.
      Then again, the fact that he was coming to Finland for treatment was hardly a news bombshell as such - Orava and other Finnish orthopaedic specialists have a stellar reputation, and Beckham is by no means the first well-known professional athlete to go under the knife in this country.
      Among the most famous sporting names whose careers have been prolonged by timely intervention from Sakari Orava alone are Olympic runners Haile Gebrselassie, Frankie Fredericks, and Merlene Ottey and footballers Didier Deschamps, David Trezeguet, and Josep Guardiola, now the head coach of Barcelona.
     
     
We shall follow this story during the week, and will also be including a longer feature article on sports surgeon Sakari Orava in our weeklies on Tuesday.
     


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Distance running legend Gebrselassie in Finland for operation (24.9.2004)

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