King could return for Villa clash

Tottenham boss Martin Jol is hoping captain Ledley King will be back in action for the Premiership clash against Aston Villa later this month.

Centre-back King has missed Tottenham’s past two games with a groin injury sustained against Birmingham on Boxing Day.

He is definitely ruled out of the midweek visit to Manchester City and the FA Cup tie at Leicester, as well as probably the trip to Liverpool on January 14.

Jol revealed: “Hopefully he will only be out for another two weeks but it could be three weeks.”

That could mean King returns against Villa at White Hart Lane on January 21, although his comeback may be delayed until the FA Cup fourth round – if Tottenham get by Leicester – the following weekend.

Anthony Gardner replaced King alongside Michael Dawson against both West Brom and Newcastle, with Tottenham recovering from defeat at the Hawthorns to beat Graeme Souness’ side.

Midfielder Michael Carrick believes the 2-0 win against Newcastle proved the team’s character in recovering from only their third league defeat of the season.

“It was an important win for us to bounce back. We haven’t suffered many defeats this season so it was a test to see how we’d react and the lads were brilliant,” Carrick told the club’s website, www.spurs.co.uk.

“We were all disappointed after West Brom but we looked at the bigger picture. We were fourth in the league and it was only our second away defeat of the season.

“So although it hurt, we didn’t make too big a thing of it. Thankfully we bounced back against Newcastle and we can now move on again.

“We’re on 37 points already and that gives us the platform to hopefully stay in and around that fourth spot.”