Tottenham Drop Captain Ledley King For Young Boys Clash – Astroturf Pitch Could ‘Kill’ Him

Ollie Irish

17th, August 2010

10 Comments

TOTTENHAM skipper Ledley King won’t play against Young Boys, because the Swiss club’s artificial pitch represents too much of a threat to his dodgy knees.

“I have thought about the Astroturf and it could just kill Ledley completely, it could ruin his knee,” Arry Redknapp said. “The surface will be harder than grass and it would be a problem for him.”

This is the right decision. King must be gutted though, even if he will be back for the second leg. I guess Seb Bassong will replace him, alongside Michael Dawson.

Tottenham’s gaffer went on to reveal that he won’t be taking tonight’s Champions League qualifier for granted, partly on the sage advice of Uncle Woy Hodgson:

“I spoke to Roy Hodgson [who has managed clubs in Switzerland] and he said it would be a really difficult game on Astroturf; they [Young Boys] know how to win on it. And we looked at the video of them against Fenerbahce and they absolutely battered them at home. They could have beaten them by six.

“But let’s be honest, we should beat them, shouldn’t we? I’m sure we’re ready to play and the Astroturf shouldn’t be a problem because technically, we’ve got players like [Luka] Modric. You can see him and all these people playing on Astroturf. You could see Modric playing on anything, couldn’t you?”

As long as Luka’s in a Spurs shirt, I don’t mind if he plays on Swiss cheese.

COYS.

Prediction: Young Boys 1-2 Tottenham