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Ledley King
- Thread starter Enter the Pitbull
- Start date
If I said what I really felt about you I would be banned from this forum
unknown
Erik Edman
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepag...career-was-over-30-seconds-into-my-debut.html
My career was over 30 seconds into my debut
Exclusive
By SHAUN CUSTIS
Published: 35 minutes ago
LEDLEY KING astonishingly admits he has been injured for his ENTIRE football career.
Spurs ace King was forced to retire last week at the age of 31 after tearfully conceding that his left knee could no longer stand the rigours of top-flight football.
But, for the first time, he has confessed that he has been crocked for 13 years — ever since he made his full debut in a match at Derby in October 1999.
He revealed: “It’s amazing that I played as long as I did really when I think back to that game at Pride Park.
“It was my first start for Spurs, I was playing in midfield and after about 30 seconds I was clattered by Rory Delap.
“I just about managed to complete the game but I needed an operation on my left knee afterwards which kept me out for six weeks. I’ve been having operations on that knee ever since.
“You could say that was the start of the end and it was only four days after my 19th birthday.”
King learned to live with the injury over the years. For the last five seasons he barely trained but, with the help of the Spurs physios and some medicinal aid, he was able to perform in games.
Not only that, he earned rave reviews from his managers and opposition players. Few doubt he could have played for the likes of Barcelona or Real Madrid had he been fully fit.
King could have given England a much-needed boost too and earned four times his haul of 21 caps.
He said: “I quickly grasped that I was never going to be as good as I wanted to be but I still felt I could be very good.
“It was probably most frustrating for the first year or so but it could have all been over after that first game so I came to accept how things were.
“There is a lot of disappointment though because I know it could have been different.”
It was in a home defeat by Norwich towards the end of the season that alarm bells started ringing loudly. City won 2-1 and King had a nightmare.
He recalled: “I’d had an accidental clash in training with a young keeper a few weeks before when I decided to throw myself about a bit and the knee was becoming a real problem again.
“But that Norwich game sticks out as probably the worst of my life. I just wasn’t at it at all. There weren’t too many times when I’ve come off the pitch and felt I was terrible but that was definitely one of them.
“Afterwards I was looking at my knee thinking ‘Can I ever get this right again?’
“Even then I’m not sure I saw the end coming. My last game was a 1-0 defeat at QPR but I didn’t know it was to be my final match. I felt like a machine which you could always find a way to fix.
“There were plenty of times my knee didn’t feel great on a Friday but I knew I would be all right for the Saturday. It was only halfway through last season where, for the first time, I wasn’t enjoying my football.
“Some days I could wake up and it would be agony and I would pray that the next day it would be OK.
“We managed to find a routine that got me peaking on match day with the help of antiinflammatories.
“I tried not to rely on them but 48 hours leading up to a game I would take a few to keep the swelling and pain down before a game.
“The physios and medical team were brilliant at finding ways of getting me out there. Most of my managers were great about my preparation although Juande Ramos found it difficult to understand a player couldn’t train.
“His training regime was tough and put me through more than I wanted.
“The knee blew up and then he understood it was right to follow the way we’d been doing it before. I would always try to train on the Friday with the lads. If the knee didn’t feel right then I would just jog.
“But I was in every day in the gym or around the place. I had a big problem with muscular injuries through not training and most of my work was about managing that and making sure I didn’t pull up in a game.”
King is looking to a future working as a Spurs ambassador and with the Skills programme in which the club help youngsters in the community.
There is talk of widening that role across London with the support of the Mayor’s office.
He also plans to take his badges with a view to becoming a coach or a manager. But would he be any good?
He laughed: “I haven’t a clue. No one really knows until they give it a try but I would like to work with kids and go from there. I want to see what I’ve got.”
King can see one major benefit about packing the game in — he might have some decent conversation at last.
He added: “Anyone I met in the street and other players I knew, they would always ask ‘How’s the knee?’ And every day I turned up at the training ground the first question was ‘How’s the knee?’
“It will be nice to talk about something else.”
LEDLEY KING cried when he learned his career was over.
Tottenham star King, 31, retired last week having been blighted by knee injuries since he was a teenager.
The defender said: “At the start of last season I felt my left knee was the F same as it had been in the last five years and that I could keep going. I didn’t envisage finishing.
“Then, even though I knew I was struggling halfway through the season, my aim was to get to May, deal with it in the summer and come back again.
“But the surgeon said he didn’t want me to end up with a knee replacement at a young age and that was what would happen if I played on. My knee felt terrible so I suppose it made the decision easy.
“But I admit there were a few tears because I always felt I could deal with it before. I’d always found a way to manage the situation and get through the season.”
King also felt emotional during his last England game at the 2010 World Cup.
He landed awkwardly in the opener with the USA and was replaced at half-time.
He said: “I wanted to cry there and then, it was three minutes into the game.”
My career was over 30 seconds into my debut
Exclusive
By SHAUN CUSTIS
Published: 35 minutes ago
LEDLEY KING astonishingly admits he has been injured for his ENTIRE football career.
Spurs ace King was forced to retire last week at the age of 31 after tearfully conceding that his left knee could no longer stand the rigours of top-flight football.
But, for the first time, he has confessed that he has been crocked for 13 years — ever since he made his full debut in a match at Derby in October 1999.
He revealed: “It’s amazing that I played as long as I did really when I think back to that game at Pride Park.
“It was my first start for Spurs, I was playing in midfield and after about 30 seconds I was clattered by Rory Delap.
“I just about managed to complete the game but I needed an operation on my left knee afterwards which kept me out for six weeks. I’ve been having operations on that knee ever since.
“You could say that was the start of the end and it was only four days after my 19th birthday.”
King learned to live with the injury over the years. For the last five seasons he barely trained but, with the help of the Spurs physios and some medicinal aid, he was able to perform in games.
Not only that, he earned rave reviews from his managers and opposition players. Few doubt he could have played for the likes of Barcelona or Real Madrid had he been fully fit.
King could have given England a much-needed boost too and earned four times his haul of 21 caps.
He said: “I quickly grasped that I was never going to be as good as I wanted to be but I still felt I could be very good.
“It was probably most frustrating for the first year or so but it could have all been over after that first game so I came to accept how things were.
“There is a lot of disappointment though because I know it could have been different.”
It was in a home defeat by Norwich towards the end of the season that alarm bells started ringing loudly. City won 2-1 and King had a nightmare.
He recalled: “I’d had an accidental clash in training with a young keeper a few weeks before when I decided to throw myself about a bit and the knee was becoming a real problem again.
“But that Norwich game sticks out as probably the worst of my life. I just wasn’t at it at all. There weren’t too many times when I’ve come off the pitch and felt I was terrible but that was definitely one of them.
“Afterwards I was looking at my knee thinking ‘Can I ever get this right again?’
“Even then I’m not sure I saw the end coming. My last game was a 1-0 defeat at QPR but I didn’t know it was to be my final match. I felt like a machine which you could always find a way to fix.
“There were plenty of times my knee didn’t feel great on a Friday but I knew I would be all right for the Saturday. It was only halfway through last season where, for the first time, I wasn’t enjoying my football.
“Some days I could wake up and it would be agony and I would pray that the next day it would be OK.
“We managed to find a routine that got me peaking on match day with the help of antiinflammatories.
“I tried not to rely on them but 48 hours leading up to a game I would take a few to keep the swelling and pain down before a game.
“The physios and medical team were brilliant at finding ways of getting me out there. Most of my managers were great about my preparation although Juande Ramos found it difficult to understand a player couldn’t train.
“His training regime was tough and put me through more than I wanted.
“The knee blew up and then he understood it was right to follow the way we’d been doing it before. I would always try to train on the Friday with the lads. If the knee didn’t feel right then I would just jog.
“But I was in every day in the gym or around the place. I had a big problem with muscular injuries through not training and most of my work was about managing that and making sure I didn’t pull up in a game.”
King is looking to a future working as a Spurs ambassador and with the Skills programme in which the club help youngsters in the community.
There is talk of widening that role across London with the support of the Mayor’s office.
He also plans to take his badges with a view to becoming a coach or a manager. But would he be any good?
He laughed: “I haven’t a clue. No one really knows until they give it a try but I would like to work with kids and go from there. I want to see what I’ve got.”
King can see one major benefit about packing the game in — he might have some decent conversation at last.
He added: “Anyone I met in the street and other players I knew, they would always ask ‘How’s the knee?’ And every day I turned up at the training ground the first question was ‘How’s the knee?’
“It will be nice to talk about something else.”
LEDLEY KING cried when he learned his career was over.
Tottenham star King, 31, retired last week having been blighted by knee injuries since he was a teenager.
The defender said: “At the start of last season I felt my left knee was the F same as it had been in the last five years and that I could keep going. I didn’t envisage finishing.
“Then, even though I knew I was struggling halfway through the season, my aim was to get to May, deal with it in the summer and come back again.
“But the surgeon said he didn’t want me to end up with a knee replacement at a young age and that was what would happen if I played on. My knee felt terrible so I suppose it made the decision easy.
“But I admit there were a few tears because I always felt I could deal with it before. I’d always found a way to manage the situation and get through the season.”
King also felt emotional during his last England game at the 2010 World Cup.
He landed awkwardly in the opener with the USA and was replaced at half-time.
He said: “I wanted to cry there and then, it was three minutes into the game.”
spurspinter1
Steve Carr
Good one Rory Delap you ****
unknown
Erik Edman
Gazza Dazzla
Chris Perry
but sounds like Ramos learnt and was not too stubborn to change his opinion / method.
Is that something bad?
jts1882
Dean Richards
Let's face it, most coaches would take the view that a player needs to train to play. Ledley's ability to play without football training was something remarkable. But its not just about Ledley, because the other centre-backs don't get to train with the matchday partner. Somehow it still worked.
P.S. Do we know AVB's position on chocolate muffins?
P.S. Do we know AVB's position on chocolate muffins?
I know we need to move on, but I miss this guy already. What a legend.
Can we sing his name at lazio game for the sheer hell of it??
O Ledley Ledley...
Can we sing his name at lazio game for the sheer hell of it??
O Ledley Ledley...
awesome dawson
Mitchell Thomas
The fans have applauding and singing his name for the minute at both home games so far this season on 26 minutes so I don't see this as being any different.
Park Lane James
Andy Sinton
I'm proud to say that I was there. Long live the King
I had always thought Ledley's knee problems were down to natural deterioration and therefore unavoidable. To find out it was down to someone intimidating a lad on his debut with a reducer makes it much more sad. And also makes me want to kick Rory Delap very hard indeed in the nuts.
Happy birthday Sir Ledley
ledley's knee injections
Sean Davis
Heartbreaking interview that with Ledley. Painstakingly honest. Makes me love the guy even more. He was in that much pain and had to through so much just to get out on the pitch.... but then his sheer ability, presence of mind, mentality dragged him through to put out top class performance after top class performance, season after season. What a player, WHAT a player.... and what could have been 
LEGEND. Happy birthday Ledders.
p.s. fudge you Delap, a clogger and thug.
LEGEND. Happy birthday Ledders.
p.s. fudge you Delap, a clogger and thug.
Former Tottenham defender Ledley King looks back on injury problems with regrets
By Pete O'Rourke - Follow me: @skysportspeteo. Last Updated: October 15, 2012 8:13am
Former Tottenham captain Ledley King admits he will always wonder what he could have achieved in his career if it was not for his injury problems.
King was forced to retire from football in July after a long-running fitness battle with a series of knee injuries.
The former England international admits he had no choice but to hang up hs boots at the age of 32 after struggling to manage his injury problems for several years.
King concedes he will always look back on his career with a mixture of pride and regret having been robbed of more appearances for club and country by his injuries.
"I'll probably always think about what might have happened without the injuries," King told the Daily Mail.
"When my knee started coming up I was 25 or 26 and was starting to feel I had a good understanding of the game and my position and could go from strength to strength.
"I had to deal with the injury and do what I could to keep my career going. I'll look back and realise I gave it everything I could to try to perform but it was difficult."
King has revealed the full extent of his fitness problems, admitting he had to use his survival instincts just to help him get through games.
"There was a lot of self-motivation involved, talking to myself," added King.
"I knew my fitness levels were so low compared with those I was playing against. I had to trick myself into believing it wasn't about that.
"I'd tell myself, 'This is a football game, use your brains, use your intelligence'. That's the way I started to defend.
"There wasn't really any pain. It was more of a restriction. I couldn't bend the knee past 90 degrees and that would limit what I could do.
"I didn't like to go to ground because if my knee bent and jolted up that was really uncomfortable. I was never much of a diver-in but you just learn to survive. You find a way. You don't cheat, but you do what you can to survive.
"Some days it would feel OK and some days it would feel terrible. Some days I'd not train for the whole week and I'd go out the day before a game and it felt no good."
http://www1.skysports.com/football/...ng-looks-back-on-injury-problems-with-regrets
By Pete O'Rourke - Follow me: @skysportspeteo. Last Updated: October 15, 2012 8:13am
Former Tottenham captain Ledley King admits he will always wonder what he could have achieved in his career if it was not for his injury problems.
King was forced to retire from football in July after a long-running fitness battle with a series of knee injuries.
The former England international admits he had no choice but to hang up hs boots at the age of 32 after struggling to manage his injury problems for several years.
King concedes he will always look back on his career with a mixture of pride and regret having been robbed of more appearances for club and country by his injuries.
"I'll probably always think about what might have happened without the injuries," King told the Daily Mail.
"When my knee started coming up I was 25 or 26 and was starting to feel I had a good understanding of the game and my position and could go from strength to strength.
"I had to deal with the injury and do what I could to keep my career going. I'll look back and realise I gave it everything I could to try to perform but it was difficult."
King has revealed the full extent of his fitness problems, admitting he had to use his survival instincts just to help him get through games.
"There was a lot of self-motivation involved, talking to myself," added King.
"I knew my fitness levels were so low compared with those I was playing against. I had to trick myself into believing it wasn't about that.
"I'd tell myself, 'This is a football game, use your brains, use your intelligence'. That's the way I started to defend.
"There wasn't really any pain. It was more of a restriction. I couldn't bend the knee past 90 degrees and that would limit what I could do.
"I didn't like to go to ground because if my knee bent and jolted up that was really uncomfortable. I was never much of a diver-in but you just learn to survive. You find a way. You don't cheat, but you do what you can to survive.
"Some days it would feel OK and some days it would feel terrible. Some days I'd not train for the whole week and I'd go out the day before a game and it felt no good."
http://www1.skysports.com/football/...ng-looks-back-on-injury-problems-with-regrets
