20 plenty for King

LEDLEY KING is confident this season will not be his last at Tottenham.

King, who joined Spurs in 1998, is in the final year of his contract and manager Harry Redknapp says the defender must play at least 20 games to earn an extension.

If his recent history with injuries is anything to go by, he may struggle to hit that mark.

King has been troubled by injury throughout his career and rarely trains with the Tottenham squad as his knees swell up after every game.

Last season the defender suffered a groin injury that meant he played just nine out of Tottenham’s 53 games.

The 30-year-old underwent an operation on his troublesome knee this summer in a bid to make sure that he would get a full campaign under his belt but he missed the first two league games before returning to star in the club’s 2-0 win at Wolves last week.

King, who was rested for Thursday night’s Europa League game at PAOK Salonika, is in line to start against Liverpool at White Hart Lane tomorrow and wants to put his last year’s injury “nightmare” behind him and is sure he will get enough game time under his belt to earn a new deal.

“Is 20 games a realistic target? Yes, I aim to play as many as I can,” said King.

“Last season I started with a niggly groin problem, played the first few games and then came off against Fulham with a torn groin muscle.

“From then, every time I tried to come back I kept having a problem with the groin.

“It was a nightmare situation trying to get it right, so I worked over the summer trying to get it right and coming into this season it feels a lot better.

!It’s just a case of getting back to concentrating on looking after the knee now and hopefully nothing else will pop out of the woodwork.”

When fit, Redknapp regards King as one of the best defenders in the league. The Spurs boss is serious when he talks of the fans’ favourite needing 20 games to win a new deal, though. Last season Jonathan Woodgate was released after he failed to overcome his injury woes. That does not make King afraid of his future, however.

He said: “I don’t feel the need to speak to anyone about it at the moment. I’ll try to let my football do the talking. If I can stay fit and play the games, the situation will take care of its self.”

Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish, meanwhile, has no concerns about his defence despite having to play Martin Skrtel out of position.

The Slovakia central defender has played the majority of the last two matches against Bolton and Stoke at right-back after injuries to Martin Kelly and Glen Johnson.

Should he continue in that role at Tottenham he is likely to come up against his greatest challenge so far in the form of flying winger Gareth Bale.

But Dalglish has no worries about his centre-back, who has found opportunities in his preferred position limited by the form of Jamie Carragher and Daniel Agger

“He has thrown himself into the right-back position and done brilliantly and he doesn’t look out of place to me”, said Dalglish.