David Beckham will not actually be attending Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes nuptials today. Victoria will attend with her sister Louise as Becks will be in Madrid. David and Victoria Beckham arrived in Italy yesterday and attended a pre-wedding dinner together but David flies back to Madrid this morning for treatment on his knee at 11am. Full details here. The media are spinning this as a rift but a spokesman for David Beckham said this had always been the plan, because until this week they did not know he would be injured, and so had made arrangements based on Becks being available to play. This sounds entirely reasonable but the media, having said that he would attend, will now seek to make more of this, than is there on either side. Publications such as The Mirror above, The Mail and even The Guardian are saying there is a "rift" or that Becks was ordered back to Madrid but it is clear that Becks did have permission to go to Italy on Friday and I'm sure both Becks and the club had agreed his plans.

According to The Sun the problem is that David Beckham sought permission from the club and not from Capello, however that doesn't change the fact that Becks did have permission. Also, we don't actually know for certain what Capello was and wasn't aware of, it's just speculation. The important thing to keep in mind, as this all gets blown sky high, is that Becks has not done anything wrong or anything he didn't have permission to do. Give the man a break, he is a consummate professional and he knows the deal.

That all said, I think the club are being incredibly mean-spirited in light of the fact that Becks is injured. Becks must be present at the Real Madrid v Racing Santander game even though he is not on the team sheet and will not take part. I think they are entitled to ask him to make his treatment session. This is a standard requirement, and most clubs would not make an exception. However, I would have thought that they could allow him to be absent from the Saturday evening game now that he will only be watching from the stands.

P.S I've added a few photos of Becks from last week, out buying biscuits in Madrid, sorry about the quality. I'll try to find some better ones.