Tottenham captain King cautious after injury woes

LONDON, Aug 16 (Reuters) – Tottenham Hotspur captain Ledley King remains cautious about whether he can play a full part this season after returning from another long injury lay-off.

“I think we’ll have to see if I can play regularly, I don’t see why I shouldn’t be able to play in all the games. The proof will be in the pudding but hopefully I’ll be fine,” King said.

The 27-year-old England defender has declared himself fit to lead the north Londoners out at Middlesbrough in their opening game of the Premier League season on Saturday.

But he has not featured that often in the build-up to the new campaign after suffering a serious knee injury last term.

“I think I’ll be fit but I’ve had to do things a bit different this pre-season,” he told reporters.

“I’ve not really played as many pre-season games as I’d have liked or would normally do but I’ve done a lot of individual work and I’ll definitely be fit for the start of the season”.

Injury-plagued King was sidelined for most of last term with a persistent knee injury. He featured in only 10 games including a memorable League Cup final win over Chelsea at Wembley.

KingÂ’s season ended prematurely in April so he could rest his knee and search for a solution to the lingering injury that had disrupted his campaign by undergoing scans and tests at several clinics, including one in the United States.

Tottenham manager Juande Ramos said he would have to be careful about the number of matches King plays this season.

“He had a serious injury so that means we have to treat him slightly differently to the rest of the squad in the sense that we have to go game by game and see how his knee responds,” the Spaniard told reporters at the club’s training ground.