David Beckham has said he will stay with his father for “as long as it takes” for him to recover after suffering a near-fatal heart attack earlier this week.

David flew over to London from Los Angeles on Wednesday evening after dad Ted Beckham was rushed to hospital and according to a source close to the family told the Daily Star that David “thought he would never see his dad alive again”.

“David dropped everything and jumped on a plane straight away. His only thought was to be with his dad. It was touch and go when he first heard. “He was just so scared he wouldn’t be in time to see him again.”

“It must have been agony for him. All that time on a plane not knowing whether his dad would make it through the night.”

Ted’s heart had stopped in the ambulance on the way to hospital but after medics revived him and he underwent emergency surgery, he is now stable.

Another family member told the Mirror: “Since he found out, David has been rambling and in a state of shock. He really feels he has really let his father down.”

“He feels he’s not been there for his father in years. Ted has been lonely, that’s the problem. He depends on [David’s sister] Lynne and her children for comfort.

“With David living even further away, he feels he’s made it much worse for his father. Worse still, David’s mum Sandra has frequently been over to the new house in LA - and Ted has not been once. He feels he’s really been a bad son to Ted recently.”

“He was saying all this to Victoria over the phone and she kept saying to him that he had his own family to think about and he’d tried his best.”

“David has been saying he’s going to sort his dad out when he pulls through this and make sure he’s living a healthier life, whatever it takes, financially. He wants his dad to be around for the next baby.”

Victoria cancelled promotional work in Japan to fly to London to be with David yesterday.