Sweating over Becks

Concerns over the fitness of David Beckham continue to plague Real Madrid, who may be without the England captain for their third successive game when they face Athletic Bilbao on Saturday.

Beckham suffered a hamstring injury against Partizan Belgrade in the Champions League nine days ago.

The reigning Spanish champions managed to pick up four points from their outings at Racing Santander and Real Zaragoza but they looked rather less than the Real deal without Beckham.

Beckham trained lightly on Thursday but called it quits after just an hour. "Keep your fingers crossed that I'm going to be OK for Saturday," he said afterwards.

The other Real fitness doubt, as they bid to grab the league leadership from Deportivo La Coruna, is over Ivan Helguera.

The Spanish international has back problems, which leaves Real coach Carlos Queiroz with holes to fill both in midfield and defence due to the absence of suspended Francisco Pavon, who was sent off during Real's 0-0 draw at Zaragoza on Tuesday.

Queiroz called up seven reserve team players to train with the first team on Thursday and several of them could be on the bench on Saturday.

Nevertheless, Real should not be overly worried by the visit of Athletic, who have not won away from home this season despite lying sixth.

It has been just over four months since the Basques were last in the Santiago Bernabeu and they were easily dispatched 3-1 in the final game of last season as Real clinched their 29th Spanish league title.

Athletic also have injury worries of their own, with their influential midfielder Tiko Martinez suffering from a badly-bruised right leg which may mean he misses the trip to the Spanish capital.

Deportivo are on top 21 points from their nine games, one more than second-placed Real, will be out to bounce back at struggling Murcia after crashing 2-0 at home to Real Mallorca on Wednesday, arguably the shock result of the season.

"I think that will be a kick up the backside to all of us," said Deportivo midfielder Sergio Gonzalez on Thursday.

Deportivo's Spanish international striker Diego Tristan, was clearly out of sorts against Mallorca and did not train on Thursday.

Club medical officials later said he was suffering from gastro-enteritis and was doubtful for Saturday.

Third-placed Valencia are also just one point behind Deportivo despite stumbling on Wednesday when they could only draw 2-2 at home to Celta Vigo.

"I wasn't satisfied which went on out there," said Valencia coach Rafa Benitez and they will be looking to do better at Mallorca on Sunday.

However the 2001/2002 champions will have to do without their Spanish international midfielder Vicente Rodriguez, who suffered a sprained left ankle on Wednesday.

The injury was bad enough for the club to admit that there was a question mark over whether he would recover in time for international duty in two weeks' time, when Spain are due to face Norway in the Euro 2004 play-offs.

Barcelona have risen to fifth on the back of two comfortable wins over weak opposition but the Catalans face a tougher test when they go to Real Sociedad on Sunday.

"I believe the team is improving. We needed these wins, especially the one at home, to give us confidence," said coach Frank Rijkaard, who suggested that Barca could still be a factor in he championship race.

One man who may not be around to pick up his second league title in the unlikely event Barca can accomplish the feat is Rijkaard's disgruntled Dutch compatriot Patrick Kluivert, who could move during the winter transfer window.

Kluivert did not get off the bench to play even a few minutes as a substitute during Wednesday's 3-0 waltz past Murcia and Rijkaard looks to have settled on the combination of Ronaldinho and Javier Saviola up front.

Saturday (kick off GMT): Celta Vigo v Racing Santander (1830), Murcia v Deportivo La Coruna (1830) and Real Madrid v Athletric Bilbao (2030)

Sunday: Real Betis v Atletico Madrid (1600), Espanyol v Real Zaragoza (1600), Malaga v Sevilla (1600), Valladolid v Albacete (1600), Villarreal v Osasuna (1600), Real Sociedad v Barcelona (1800) and Real Mallorca v Valencia (2000)