Curse of Becks' boots strikes Jamie

Lucky for him, Jamie Oliver has no time for superstition. If he did, he would most likely have a feeling of impending doom by now. The 27-year-old Naked Chef was the toast of David Beckham's World Cup Party when he paid £29,000 at a charity auction for a signed pair of the England captain's football boots. He bought them as a good luck charm to hang on the wall of his new London restaurant.

But in a spooky twist of fate on Sunday, just hours after the boots arrived, Oliver had a kickabout and managed to damage the metatarsal bone in his foot - exactly the same bone Beckham fractured back in April. As the chef hobbled round yesterday at the restaurant, due to open in September in Westland Place, Shoreditch, a spokesman for him said: "We're not sure if the boots are going on the wall now."

Two months ago, the Beckhams held a £350,000 party to wish good luck to the England team in Japan and raise cash for the NSPCC. At the auction, Beckham's Adidas Predators started a bidding war between Oliver and Simply Red singer Mick Hucknall.

Neither would budge, so Beckham gave both identical pairs of signed Predators - each for £29,000. Oliver also bought two tickets to all England's games in the World Cup, flying Virgin upper class return, for £14,000. The two lots - worth £43,000 - made him the biggest spender of the night.

But when the boots arrived, things went pearshaped. Later Oliver went for a kickabout during a "sourcing" trip to Cumbria - looking for the perfect beef farmer to use for the restaurant. Oliver said during a particularly hefty kick "I hit the ball on a volley and I now have the same thing as David Beckham had wrong with his foot".

Oliver's spokesman, Peter Berry, added: "He twisted his foot. He has some kind of break or sprain to the metatarsal. It is isn't as serious as David's. Jamie's got a very bad hobble. He'll be alright, though - surviving. It was just bad luck I suppose. The original idea was to have the boots mounted in a glass case in the restaurant - I don't know what the plans are now."

Oliver will be hoping that the apparently jinxed boots do not affect the fortunes of his new restaurant. Provisionally called 15 @ Westland Place, it will not make a penny in profit. Due to sponsorship deals - providing ingredients, hardware and advice, as well as charity trusteeships providing financial backing - the restaurant will be as much a training school as a top-class place to eat. Takings will be ploughed back into training young chefs and staff.

Oliver said: "We have been working with a bunch of underprivileged kids who are not much good at anything apart from music and cooking. I can slightly empathise with that, since I was rubbish at anything at school but good with anything with my hands."

He added: "We are aiming for a really high-level and beautiful London restaurant. Funnily enough, finding good staff is the hardest thing. We are looking to get people in by mid-August. "

Let's hope none of them play football.