Tottenham legend reveals exactly why he had to end his career early

There are few footballing names in a generation of a club that will go down in history forever, but Ledley King is one of those names.

The ex-Spurs captain was one of the most naturally talented centre backs of his time, and could have gone on to play for his club and country hundreds more times if not for his awful injuries.

As many will know from the beloved song ‘Oh, Ledley, Ledley, he’s only got one knee…’ King suffered greatly from knee injuries throughout his career.

By the end, it was so bad that King wouldn’t actually train through the week, but merely play a match, wait for the swelling to go down through the week, then play again.

However, in 2012 the injury became too much for the Tottenham legend, and he took the difficult decision to call time on his Spurs career.

Now, Ledley has revealed exactly why he chose to do so.

He said (Spurs website): “I felt good in the first half of the season and we made a great start (our best start to a Premier League season after 14 games). I then took a whack on my knee and I wasn’t the same in the second half of the season. I started to struggle. I managed it quite well – I still played 23 games – but I could feel my performances starting to decline, my mobility was becoming worse and I just knew. It was tough. In the back of my mind I could probably have struggled on but long-term, it wasn’t worth it. I was too proud in my performances to struggle on and that was the biggest factor.”

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