The missing cannons to the right of them

I'm thinking of Lord Alfred Tennyson's The Charge of the Light Brigade; that disastrous and tragic cavalry charge led by Lord James Cardigan against the Russians in the Crimean War. In this case, Fabio Capello's England will be without its best right flanks with superb cannons from David Beckham and Aaron Lennon both out with injury and possible service in South Africa this summer.

I thought it was a most cruel fate that Beckham would tear his Achilles tendon. An unfortunate injury that will in all likelihood keep him out of England's 2010 World Cup campaign; his last hurrah after all the tumult of the final years in Madrid and in Los Angeles. He was clearly building towards this. At 35 years old, it is with all probability that he will have seen his final international game. England looks to pay more attention to the right wing where aside from Becks, Lennon is hurting and has not been able to help his Tottenham Hotspurs team.

In Germany, Lennon's pace was refreshing and inspiring as he came off the bench. The groin injury hampers that vision and when you consider the replacements -- Shaun Wright-Phillips or Theo Walcott -- they don't exactly inspire fear in the hearts of opponents. Well, there's Joe Cole or James Milner of which the former was effective in Germany (except he hasn't done as well in recent years). Or does Fabio Capello move Steven Gerrard there to make way for Frank Lampard in the middle? All these questions for the Three Lions.

And there is the Galaxy. I think they'll still be good without Beckham. This has and always will be Landon Donovan's club. They had a good run last season and they should even be better with more tinkering here and there by Bruce Arena. They have on loan from Brazilian side Sao Paolo midfielder Juninho (the younger one not the one who played with Lyon) and defenders Leonardo and Alex Cazumba. A fourth internationalist, Jamaican Donovan Ricketts mans the goal. The others foreign players on the Galaxy's roster are Yohance Marshall and Chris Birchall from Trinidad and Tobago, Ukrainian Dema Kovalenko, Puerto Rican Josh Suanders, and England's Beckham.

Beckham who hoped to be the first English footballer to play in four World Cups and hopefully aside from leading his team to its second title, a chance to pass Peter Shilton for having the most caps. He underwent the knife this morning and it took about an hour to get the procedure done. But he'll be out anywhere from three to six months with the latter being the most reasonable.