The England captain could be set to play in his favoured central midfield role due to a groin injury to Liverpool's Steven Gerrard and knows as always that his country expects.

Sven-Goran Eriksson's side are already without Paul Scholes, who retired from international football after Euro 2004, as well as Nicky Butt through injury.

The Real Madrid star is under pressure to impress after being criticised for his performances at Euro 2004, but Beckham is adamant he is up for the challenge.

He said: "I am a captain that wants to lead by example. I want to be like the ones there have been over the years like Alan Shearer and Bryan Robson.

I want to fight for every ball and even if I am not playing well and scoring free kicks, that people see me giving my all.

"When you have a high profile player and he drops just below his high standards, you are going to get criticised. But my mentality is to fight back.

"I want to win something with my country and it will be a disappointment at the end of my career if I haven't.

"Hopefully we can go all the way in this one. Qualifying is the most important thing first and what happened in the summer is over now.

"The last couple of competitions we haven't gone as far as we or people expected us to. With the talent we have we should do and hopefully this time it will happen.

"It is an exciting time. We have got players coming through like Jermain Defoe and Shaun Wright-Phillips. We have lost a few players to injury for the game and Paul Scholes has retired, but it is a good young team.

"This maybe my last shot for a World Cup campaign and winning something as big as that would be great.

"Some people say we have given excuses in the past, but there have been real reasons. We can talk about getting luck, but you do need it to win competitions.

"We as players don't like making excuses because if you are knocked out of a competition we know we are going to get criticised.

Some players do better if they have extra responsibility and I hope to show that against Austria."

Beckham has already shown his ability in the centre of midfield having played there regularly for Real Madrid last season and he will happily step in for Eriksson should Gerrard fail to recover.

He added: "We are hoping Steve will be fit but obviously if I am asked to play that role, I am more than happy to do so.

"I am happy as long as I'm in the England team, but I have always said I am happy playing in either position.

"I've been in the middle for Real Madrid so I am more than happy to play there for England. I just think playing in the middle you get to be involved in more of the game because you can pass to the right, left and the middle, but on the right my options are limited."

England have not played against Austria since they last played in Vienna and lost 4-3 in a friendly. Beckham is all too aware that their manager Hans Krankl and his side should be treated with respect.

He said: "We know that their manager is very astute and was a good player. We will learn more about the team overnight and watch more videos, but we are aware of this team and what they can do. We are not taking them lightly at all."

03 September 2004  
David Beckham Press Conference - Audio