David Beckham has revealed how the Achilles injury which wrote off a World Cup for the football star helped him to realise the depth of his bond with wife Victoria.

He talks about the incident in his adventure documentary David Beckham Into the Unknown.

His Achilles injury occurred as he played for AC Milan in the months leading up to the 2010 World Cup finals, in which he had desperately hoped to represent England again.

Beckham said: “I felt my Achilles had gone − there was a huge hole in it. And the doctor came over to me and he gave me the phone. Victoria was on the phone and she said: ‘What’s just happened?’ And I said to her ‘It’s done’. And she said, ‘What do you mean it’s done?’

“I’ll never forget, she just burst out unconditionally with emotion and crying − when someone just kind of can’t get their breath. She literally handed the phone to one of the boys and the boys were upset.”

He went on: “That was one of the points when I knew I had a wife that really understood me and really understood why I was doing it.”

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