updated 11:00 p.m. ET Oct. 4, 2007

LOS ANGELES - David Beckham’s injury-interrupted first season with the Los Angeles Galaxy made it “very, very strange and unique,” general manager Alexi Lalas said Thursday.

“You can plan all you want for the arrival of someone like David Beckham, but when that hurricane blows in, it is unlike anything that you have ever seen,” he said in remarks at the Honda Soccer Symposium.

Beckham received treatment on his sprained right knee Thursday, a day after returning to light training for the first time since getting hurt in a game on Aug. 29. He said he is still restricted on how much he can do.

Beckham will not travel with the team for Sunday’s game at Houston, Lalas said.

But Lalas is hopeful the English superstar could return for one or both of the Galaxy’s final two home games — against Toronto FC on Oct. 13 and against New York on Oct. 18. Their final game of the Major League Soccer regular season is Oct. 21 at Chicago.

However, Lalas cautioned, “If for one instance, we feel that either physically or mentally he is not 100 percent ready to go, he will not play for us.”

Beckham already had a left ankle injury when he joined the Galaxy in July. That, along with his right knee, has limited him to six games and a total of 310 minutes. He is earning $6.5 million this season.

“We’ve had this incredible asset, this incredible attraction and we haven’t been able to put him in the environment where he is most comfortable, and that is on the field,” Lalas said.

As a result, Los Angeles is 7-13-6 with four games remaining, but is considered unlikely to make the playoffs.

Lalas said that Beckham’s greatest impact on the Galaxy and MLS has come off the field, where sales of tickets and merchandise have skyrocketed.

“The on-the-field part of the equation has yet to come to fruition and that is also the most important thing. If he’s not playing on the field and if the team is not playing well on the field, it doesn’t work,” Lalas said.

“We’ve made our money back and continue to make money and continue to generate revenues unlike anything we’ve ever seen for the Galaxy or for Major League Soccer. That’s all fine and well, but he needs to get back on the field.”

Adding Beckham to MLS also commanded the attention of non-soccer fans in a country where the sport lags behind football, baseball and basketball.

“He has changed, and I believe for the better, Major League Soccer and the sport of soccer probably forever,” Lalas said.

“We’ll probably look back at 2007 in the way that we look back at 1994 and say that was an important and historical moment. It’s not going to be everything and we still got a long way to go, but we need to have more of these moments.”

Lalas touched on the many changes caused by Beckham’s arrival involving increased security, travel, media, paparazzi and players’ wives, without mentioning Beckham’s high-profile spouse Victoria by name.

“Have you ever tried to walk through an airport with David Beckham? It’s very, very difficult,” Lalas said. “We are learning as we go along. This is not something that any MLS team has had to deal with in the past.”

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Within the team, there have been adjustments caused by having a player like Beckham making millions of dollars dropped into the midst of players who make considerably less.

“The dynamics in the locker room are interesting and they’re challenging,” Lalas said. “I believe they’re important because they manifest themselves out there on the field. We’ve had to work through all of that.”

Lalas admitted there are times when Beckham is not treated as just another player.

“As much as he wants to be treated as one of the guys, he is different,” the general manager told an audience of soccer executives at the Millennium Biltmore hotel. “It’s hard.”

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