Ricketts Prepared For Beckham Test

Much to the envy of all his team-mates, Swansea full-back Sam Ricketts will start on the same pitch as the likes of David Beckham, Wayne Rooney, Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard on Saturday, as Wales host England in front of a capacity crowd at the Millenium Stadium. This will mark the peak of a fantastic change around in his career over the last 14 months, that has seen him join the Swans from non-league Telford United before being whisked into the International set-up after an impressive debut season in South Wales.

"I suppose the worst case scenario is that David Beckham starts the game and then Shaun Wright-Phillips comes on for the last 15 minutes just to finish you off", Ricketts told the Evening Post. "I'm playing against someone from Real Madrid and a team full of world-class players. They are expected to be better than me and to beat me and it's up to me to try to stop that".

"It's great to get the chance to play against these players just to see what you can do against them. I certainly won't get stagefright because there's nothing for me to lose. I know what I expect from myself and I can only try my hardest".

On David Beckham, Ricketts claimed "I've never played against anyone in his class and I've never even seen him play live. I don't think he'll have any idea who I am," he concedes. But, hopefully, I'll be able to stick close to him throughout the game and he'll give me his shirt at the end".