For even the great players, football's Grim Reaper shows no mercy.

For David Beckham, who helped turn a game once feared and loathed for its lager louts, hooligan rampages and ugly violence into the new rock and roll, he didn't so much burn out but fade away.

The 34-year-old was playing hooky from his day job with L.A. Galaxy and having a run with Italian giants AC Milan. Becks was hoping that another successful spell with the Rossoneri might convince the unflappable Mr. Capello to include him in his England squad for the World Cup in South Africa.

Any dream of a fourth World Cup Finals campaign ended in the most innocuous of circumstances. With Milan leading Chievo 1-0 and with just a few minutes remaining, Beckham seemed to stop mid-pitch, under little duress, but then in obvious pain collapsed after hobbling to the sidelines. An achilles tendon had snapped, calling time on his dream and giving Fabio Capello one less bullet to dodge ahead of the pursuit of England's impossible dream in June and July.

As is the way of these things, Beckham had closure of sorts after his recent visit to Old Trafford, the place where he lived the dream in Sir Alex Ferguson's theatre of football. The old master was still in charge whilst his once young apprentice was, at best, a peripheral figure as the Red Devils humiliated Milan.

Beckham's contribution as a legend amongst Ferguson's golden generation that included the likes of Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs had not been forgotten by the United faithful as he was given a rapturous reception.

Some might have had a chuckle to themselves to see him wearing the green and gold scarf after the game. These are the colours of the club once known as Newton Heath L&YR FC, the club established in 1878 for the workers of the Lancashire and Yorkshire railway workers that was to become Manchester United. The scarf has become a symbol of protest against the Glazer family's ownership of United. Big American money running the game, we can't be having that, can we?

Except Golden Balls ran away from European club football to play celebrity footballer in Hollywood all in pursuit of, um, err..big American money. Of course, it might be too much to expect the irony of that to be apparent to Mr Posh Spice.