MADRID: Real Madrid coach Fabio Capello, saluting David Beckham's current form as possibly the best of his career, said on Friday he couldn't understand Steve McClaren's reticence to recall the veteran midfielder to the England fold.
Amid much speculation over whether McClaren might end Beckham's year in the international wilderness by naming him for next month's must-win Euro 2008 qualifier with Estonia, Capello said if he were England boss he would have his name pencilled in already.
"He's been playing the best he's done for the past two years," Capello said of the former Manchester United star, who McClaren dumped on taking over from Sven-Goran Eriksson after the World Cup last summer.
"I don't understand why a player of this level is not in the England team.
"I think David has, physically and psychologically, never been as good as he is right now," Capello added, having himself had to revise his original feeling that Beckham was a spent force after announcing in January that he was heading for MLS side Los Angeles Galaxy at the end of the season.
Another Real star discarded at international level, Ruud Van Nistelrooy, has made his return to the Dutch squad after reportedly patching up his differences with coach Marco Van Basten.
After enduring a spell frozen out of Real's first team Beckham returned and has since hit a purple patch of form to help Real to the top of the table, level on points with Barcelona with just three games to go.
Should they win that trio of tests, starting with an encounter with Deportivo La Coruna at the Bernabeu on Saturday night, then Beckham could head Stateside with a championship winner's medal to claim his first trophy in Spain.
McClaren would only tell reporters when pressed on the matter Thursday that "there has been a lot of speculation about David and quite a few other people".
One man almost certain to return is Beckham's former Real teammate Michael Owen, for his first England appearance since limping out of last summer's World Cup with cruciate knee ligament damage.
