Dallaglio's digit may not quite rival Beckham's metatarsal for the sporting injury that transfixes a nation but a surgeon's knife could deprive England of another captain this summer.
The Wasps No8 is deciding whether to have a tendon reattached on his injured thumb sooner rather than later and on Saturday played with the thumb covered in a cast.
For a player who returned to his club side only six weeks ago, after knee surgery, the latest injury may seem trivial but it could be enough to prevent him leading England against the Barbarians at the end of the month, and then on the short tour of Argentina.
One man may not make a team but Lawrence Dallaglio's return, along with the appointment of the New Zealander Warren Gatland as coach, has coincided with an upsurge in Wasps' fortunes. Dallaglio's five starts have produced five Premiership wins and put them on the threshold of qualification for the Heineken Cup.
If this victory did not quite have the kudos of the one over Leicester here six weeks ago, it was still highly significant as Wasps were playing their last game for two seasons, and perhaps ever, in Shepherd's Bush as Fulham FC are replacing them as tenants while their Craven Cottage ground is rebuilt.
When Chris Wright, the rugby club's multi-millionaire chairman, was driving along the A40 six years ago he decided that Wasps, on the dawning of professionalism, should share a home with Queens Park Rangers FC. Now the rugby club is considering moving further down the M40 to share with either Wycombe Wanderers or Oxford United.
The local council will decide at the end of the month if it will reverse a decision not to give consent to the Wycombe ground share but Firoz Kassam, the Oxford United chairman, wants profes sional rugby to be played at the stadium that bears his name and will host this season's Parker Pen Shield final.
Kassam has failed in his attempt to buy the franchise of the League One club Moseley and create the Oxford Eagles, but moving Wasps 50 miles west would risk alienating supporters and create a marketing headache for the men who rebranded Wright's club as London Wasps.
Despite the attractions of the FA Cup final, a decentish 6,133 turned up for this possible farewell to west London with the Wasps full-back Paul Sampson running out in his own tribute to Freddie Ljungberg, a spiky haircut with a red streak down the middle.
But it was the Chelsea supporter Dallaglio, along with fellow back-rowers Joe Worsley and Paul Volley, who provided the real highlights. All three were outstanding in a physical, often fractious match decided when Simon Shaw crashed over from a lineout at the end of the third quarter.
Matt Dawson, like Dallaglio not averse to giving the referee the benefit of his opinions, was lucky to stay on the pitch for throwing a punch at Ian Jones just before the interval. Wayne Smith, the New Zealand coach who has helped transform the Saints, claimed that Dawson was being held back and said that the club would examine a video of the match in which both Paul Grayson and Ben Cohen had to leave the field for facial cuts.
Wasps travel to Bath next Sunday and, with or without Dallaglio, who was sent to the sin-bin for killing the ball late in the match, they could yet condemn Bath to relegation, especially as Phil Greening and Fraser Waters will be restored to the squad.
Wasps: Sampson; Roiser, Lewsey, Denney (Abbott, 80), Logan; King (Leek, 80), Wood (Friday, 80); Dowd, Leota (Barrett, 79), Green (McKenzie, 59), Shaw, Jones (Beardshaw, 80), Worsley. Volley (Lock, 80), Dallaglio (capt).
Try: Shaw. Penalties: King 3, Logan.
Sin-bin: Dallaglio, 72.
Northampton: Beal; Moir, Tucker, Leslie, Cohen; Grayson, Dawson; Smith, Thompson (Richmond, 58), Morris (Todd, 59), Phillips, Brouzet, Hunter, Pountney (capt), Soden.
Penalties: Grayson 2.
Referee : D Pearson (Yorkshire).
Attendance: 6,133.
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