England boss Steve McClaren has defended his decision to play LA Galaxy midfielder David Beckham in last week's 2-1 friendly defeat by Germany.

For the first time, Galaxy general manager Alexi Lalas has expressed concern about the amount of miles Beckham will be required to travel over the next few months as he combines his commitments to both club and country.

"It would have been daft for us not to bring David over," said McClaren. "He needed a full 90 minutes, especially at this level.

"It was good preparation for the games against Israel and Russia in two weeks' time.

"We wanted to expose him to that quality pace of game and he also created chances for us."