LONDON, Dec 16: Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson revealed Sunday that the reason he has dropped David Beckham from the Premiership champions last four matches was because the England captain was drained after leading his country to the World Cup finals.

Ferguson admitted that 26-year-old Beckham’s niggling back injury was not significant in the decision to rest him.

“He drained himself giving everything for England in the matches that took them to the World Cup finals,” Ferguson told The Sunday Times.

“People rightly rave about his performances for his country, but the contribution he has made to three qualifying games with Germany, Greece and Albania, and in the friendlies with Holland and Sweden, has taken a significant toll.

“England have had far more benefit from David this season than United have. Monitoring of what he did against Greece showed that he ran 10 kilometres in that match. No player can give that kind of effort without paying a price.”—AFP