Major League Soccer kicks off its 15th season on Thursday with hopes that injured English midfielder David Beckham will be able to play before the campaign ends in October.

David Beckham is expected to play for MLS before the campaign ends in October.

Expansion team Philadelphia Union will visit the Seattle Sounders in the opener for North America's 16-team football league, which will see the addition of teams in 2011 in Vancouver and Portland, Oregon.

MLS growth and record attendance has come since Beckham's 2007 arrival with the Los Angeles Galaxy, although injuries and loan deals to AC Milan have kept him off the field for much of his stay with the Hollywood side.

Beckham tore his left Achilles tendon on March 14 in a match for AC Milan, dooming his dream of playing for England at the World Cup in South Africa in June, where they begin their campaign against the United States.

Doctors expect it will take six months for Beckham to be ready to return to action. That would put him in position for a late September comeback to help the Galaxy make a run to the playoffs.

"We have communicated our support for him and our sorrow that he lost this dream of his that he worked so hard to achieve," MLS commissioner Don Garber said on Tuesday.

Garber said plans were in the works for Beckham appearances that might promote MLS even if the English star will not play in matches.

"It's all happening as we speak," Garber said. "Now he has to get deep into rehab and focus on whether or not he can make it back this year."

Real Salt Lake denied Beckham his MLS title dream last year, defeating the Galaxy in a shootout for the MLS Cup crown.

After reaching an agreement with players last weekend on a new labor contract to avoid a strike that would have shut down the season, Garber was confident the MLS would benefit from the World Cup and promotion from US broadcasters.

MLS is hoping to capitalize on growing US interest in the World Cup. There have been more tickets sold to US people for the 2010 World Cup than to people from any other nation, including football hotbeds England, Italy, Germany and Spain.

"The World Cup will be more popular in the US and Canada than ever before," Garber said. "This could leave a lasting legacy for US Soccer and Major League Soccer. This will be unprecedented in terms of noise and attention."

The new five-year labor deal boosts the MLS minimum salary to $40,000 and team salary budgets rise from $2.315 million to $2.55 million in 2010 and by five percent each year thereafter.

Elite players such as Beckham sign deals that do not count against the salary cap.

"It's in all of our interests for us to have star players that will increase interest in our league," Garber said.