David Beckham looks set to be out of action until November.

David Beckham has said that he is unlikely to be back playing before November, as his rehabilitation from an Achilles tendon injury is taking longer than expected.

The England and LA Galaxy midfielder sustained the injury while on loan at AC Milan in March, putting pay to his hopes of appearing in a fourth World Cup in the summer.

"I won't be running for another three months, so I will be playing again in, probably, November," Beckham said in a video on the website of US TV network ABC.

On a domestic level it means Becks is likely to miss the entire MLS season, unless his side reach the play-offs. While on the international stage he would not be available to Fabio Capello’s England squad until the European Championship Qualifier against Wales in March 2011.

“This is an injury that is going to take time to heal. I’m only six weeks after the surgery, I started therapy ten days ago and I’m just doing that every day. I kind of want to push it but with this kind of injury you can’t. You have to wait for it to heal and then move on," he told MLSSoccer.com. 

“At the moment it’s just getting the motion back into the ankle and the tendon because obviously it’s still repairing so I can’t stretch too much and I have to wear the [protective] boot every day.”

Beckham may still go to South Africa 2010 with Capello’s squad in some capacity and also in his role as an ambassador for England’s 2018 ‘Back the Bid’ campaign.