Eriksson will 'take care' of Beckham booking

England manager Sven-Goran Eriksson today promised to “take care” of the controversy surrounding David Beckham’s booking against Wales later this week.

Beckham, who suffered a fractured rib in the 2-0 win at Old Trafford, has revealed he deliberately got booked so he would serve the suspension by missing tomorrow’s World Cup qualifier in Azerbaijan while injured.

However Eriksson remained non-committal this afternoon on whether he would take action against his captain, and insisted he wanted the focus to remain on the match in Baku.

“I will know what I will do on Thursday or Friday – please wait until then,” said the Swede, who added: “On Thursday or Friday I will take care of it.”

Eriksson confirmed Michael Owen will take over the captain’s armband in the absence of Beckham, but he did not confirm who will replace him in the team with Shaun Wright-Phillips or Owen Hargreaves possible contenders.

“As a captain, for sure, Michael Owen,” Eriksson said. “On the pitch we will try one or two things today. We have options – we have no David Beckham but we have options.”

Eriksson also hinted he might stick with his formation of three strikers in Owen, Jermain Defoe and Wayne Rooney and that it could work in an away game.

“I think so and I hope so if we chose to do that.”