IN THE movie School of Rock, Jack Black’s maverick teacher asks pupils: “Don’t tell me you guys have never got the Led out?!” He is trying to educate them about heavy metal and is appalled they don’t know Led Zeppelin. Juande Ramos doesn’t look much of a headbanger but he would get the Led out as often as possible if he could. Football’s Led, of course, is Ledley King, of whom Martin Jol said: “It’s simple: Tottenham are twice as good when he plays.”

Ramos has lost 16 of his 52 matches as Spurs manager, 13 in the 37 games where King was absent. All Spurs’ triumphs last season — the Carling Cup final, the 5-1 defeat of Arsenal, demolitions of Fulham and Reading — came with the Led on the pitch. King has missed five games this season. Spurs have drawn one, lost four.

Today, he is back. Mired in 20th, bewildered participants in what Ramos concedes is a relegation fight, how Tottenham need their talisman for a visit to Stoke, perhaps the Premier League’s most direct team. At a chilly Britannia stadium, a full crowd urging his men to stick it to ball-players such as Luka Modric, Tony Pulis will fancy his chances of plunging Spurs beyond crisis into meltdown. It is a time for the strong and none is stronger than King, at least mentally. Physically, weakness in the cartilage of his knees has splintered one of football’s brightest careers. In John Terry’s absence, King should have lined up for England on Wednesday. Instead, he has had another week of lonely work with the physiotherapists and the worry that he might never return to top condition again.

King’s problem, experienced acutely in his left knee, means that while he can get through a match or complete a training session, there is a chance the joint will balloon with fluid afterwards, making further exercise impossible until the swelling and considerable pain have gone away.

“I’ve seen plenty of specialists. You take a few things off each one and see what helps,” King said. “At the moment I’m still searching a little bit but I’m working with the physios every day and we stick to a routine. When I’m on the pitch I’m fine. It’s how the knee reacts after; sometimes it swells up, not every time.”

He missed all but 10 games of last season and Ramos has decided to try to manage the condition by rationing his appearances. “The first four games I played this season, I could have played the next games three or four days after,” said King. Ramos is more cautious, saying King can participate in “one game every two to three weeks”, and has used him more in Spurs’ knockout matches than league ones because Vedran Corluka is ineligible for the Uefa Cup. Stoke is too important to miss and the international break gave King a chance to work on stamina through non-impact gym work and swimming. “Of course you want to be fully fit but I know how to play a game,” King said. “When you’re out for a long time, you think about your career but I’ve tried to stay strong and at the moment I’m not fearful for it. The thing I’m fearful about is the team’s not doing well and I’m not playing every game.

“Last season was probably the lowest point of my career; what’s positive this season is I’m managing to stick to the regime we’ve set out.”

He turned 28 last Sunday. He has as much ability as Terry and Rio Ferdinand and this should be his playing peak. “Definitely at my age I shouldn’t be having these problems with my knee,” he said. “I missed six months last season, came back and still had a problem. In summer I spent a month in Barcelona working on it and there were still problems. Obviously that was a bit of a scare. We’re taking this slowly and I can’t rush into playing too many games. The main thing is for me to be there for the whole season. I’ve reached an age where you think about the team and the team only.”

King dates the injury back to his first full start, at Derby in 1999, when he felt his left knee after being tackled. There will be heavy tackles at Stoke. “It’s going to be physical and it’s for us to stand up and be strong,” he said. He revealed Fabio Capello telephones to monitor his progress but England is currently out of the question.

Meanwhile, Ramos fuelled speculation he is unhappy about Tottenham’s transfer dealings when he said, gnomically: “I cannot speak about this. I will only speak within the club, it’s not possible publicly.

“In a normal situation I could, but at this moment we are very bad in the table and it would be controversial to speak and I don’t like controversy.”

ON TV TODAY
Stoke City v Tottenham
3.30pm, kick-off 4pm
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Come back King

- Since the 2006-07 season, Spurs have suffered in the league without King, winning only 27% of games

- However, when the defender has been on the pitch, Spurs have won 48% of games. In two seasons, he has never played in more than two consecutive games for Spurs