The former Manchester United and Real Madrid midfielder was expected to make his bow for the Major League Soccer club against Chelsea in the early hours of this morning but was only expected to play a minor role as he nurses an ankle injury.

However, Beckham seems certain to be in the England squad for next month's Wembley friendly against Germany and the five remaining Euro 2008 qualifiers later this year.

Galaxy general manager Alexi Lalas has warned fans to expect their star attraction to be missing from some key matches as he jets back and forth across the Atlantic.

"I am hoping that I will play the rest of the games leading up to the championships, reach 100 caps and then take it on from there. I am not looking to get to 100 games and then finish, I want to play for England even though I am playing in America, " said Beckham, speaking to New Beginnings on ITV1, which will be broadcast on Tuesday.

The Leytonstone-born superstar maintains he has no qualms about leaving European club football behind, having finished the last season with a Spanish league title. "It was very tempting to make a decision where I was going to be around my family more in England, but sometimes you have to look at the big picture and for me the only option was America, " he said."For me it was a decision that was not taken lightly and I did not rush into it, it was just at the time for the right reasons, and it is now. Many things excite me to be honest, the challenge of making soccer big in this country, it is such a huge and passionate country, it is something that I would be so proud of being able to do. "I have always said that in my career and in my life I have made decisions that I never want to regret. I always made that vow to myself and I believe in this move."

There are, though, certain aspects of British culture which Beckham admits he would like to have taken Stateside.

He said: "Obviously I will miss my family and my friends, the [David Beckham Football] Academy, but I will also miss things like English pubs I am sure there will be a few Irish ones so that will be close enough.

"I will also miss pie and mash, it is something I love eating when I come back to London. But actually someone told me that there was a couple of pie and mash shops in Santa Barbara, so I will go searching for them."

Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho insisted that the Galaxy should not take any chances with Beckham's fitness. Mourinho insisted his players would not be out to make Beckham's injury any worse by going after him.

"When I was a child I heard dozens of stories of Eusebio, who was injured but had to play a certain game because of the cachet of the match. Pele, too, was always involved in tense situations. But there is a limit a pain limit and a consequence limit. If the consequence is that Beckham is one day with a swollen ankle, that is fine. But if the consequence is one or two weeks out, then no. "Still, I think the game needs him if not during, then he should do something special before. If he is on for 10 minutes and we are winning, we will let him play for free and will make a freekick for him to score."

Beckham's new Galaxy team-mates, including Landon Donovan and Cobi Jones, urged the midfielder not to rush back from injury, while another team-mate, the former Middlesbrough defender Abel Xavier, insisted that the rest of the squad had to step up their efforts following a 30 defeat to Mexican side Tigres in their previous match.

"Having Beckham is a good pressure but you still have to have a foundation, Beckham is not Michael Jordan, " he remarked.