England coach tells Beckham: You're too old

WEMBLEY, England -- David Beckham's record-setting England career appears to be over after coach Fabio Capello indicated Wednesday the midfielder is too old.

Beckham has played 115 times for England, second behind only goalkeeper Peter Shilton's 125 from 1970-90.

The 35-year-old Beckham missed out on playing at a fourth World Cup after tearing an Achilles' tendon in March while on loan to AC Milan from the Galaxy and resumed training Wednesday in Los Angeles.

Ahead of England's exhibition against Hungary, Capello told the British broadcaster ITV that Beckham is "probably a bit too old" to play for England again, adding: "Thank you, David."

Beckham, who began his career at Manchester United in 1992, made his England debut against Moldova in September 1996.

The low point of his international career came at his first World Cup, in 1998, when he was ejected for petulantly kicking at Argentina midfielder Diego Simeone. England lost the second-round match, and some England fans hanged effigies of Beckham.

Beckham managed to bounce back and captained the team at the 2002 World Cup under coach Sven-Goran Eriksson.

Beckham tearfully relinquished the England captaincy after the 2006 tournament, when England reached the quarterfinals for the second successive time. He was then initially dropped by coach Steve McClaren, but was restored as England's qualifying campaign for the 2008 European Championship faltered.

McClaren was fired in November 2008 after England failed to reach Euro 2008.

Despite initially falling out of favor under Capello before being restored to the team when both were at Real Madrid, Beckham's international career survived when the Italian coach took over from McClaren.

Beckham often only appeared as a late substitute but played a role in 16 of the 21 matches under Capello before he was injured three months before this year's World Cup.

Such was his enduring influence in the camp that Beckham was taken to the World Cup in a non-playing role by Capello. He wasn't there in an official coaching capacity despite often appearing on the training field.