The Tottenham Hotspur captain has had a career that has been plagued by injuries, often preventing him from getting his just rewards on the international stage. Despite this fact he has maintained his role as the heartbeat of the Spurs side.

He was pivotal in pushing the team towards their highest finish since the formation of the English Premier League, claiming fourth spot to take his team into the UEFA Champions League qualifiers for the first time in their history.

With a finely tuned ability to read the game and a fantastically timed tackle nothwithstanding, he is seen by many as one of the top defenders in England on his day, and many of his performances towards the end of the season have further boosted these claims.

Fabio Capello is a long-time admirer of his, picking him for his first squad as England manager, but King had to pull out through injury. This was also the case during his most recent call-up to the squad in March 2009.

His last cap came back in 2007, having previously had to withdraw from Sven Goran Eriksson’s squad for the 2006 FIFA World Cup Germany™ with a metatarsal injury, but did feature for the Swede at UEFA EURO 2004, playing twice.

King’s main vice is a chronic knee problem, which means he has difficulty training and can often only play one game a week – though he defied this trend in final weeks of the league season - but club manager Harry Redknapp said that his captain so good that, even if he can only play half the season, he’s still worth having.

Fabio Capello seems to be of a similar opinion and, should he be able to prove his fitness to some degree, there is every chance he could play an important role in the finals