• Tottenham defender has faith in quality of side
• ‘I’m sure we can do well in the World Cup’

Michael Dawson is hoping to complete a memorable season by helping England to World Cup glory this summer.

Dawson played a major part in Tottenham Hotspur earning a place in the Champions League qualifiers for the first time. Then his own fine form was recognised with the 26-year-old being voted the club’s player of the year. Now he has faith in England to do themselves justice in South Africa after claiming “it’s scary how good the players are”.

Dawson, a late replacement for the injured captain Rio Ferdinand, had his first taste of senior England action in yesterday’s warm-up game with the Platinum Stars.

He said: “It’s been a great season. Qualifying for the Champions League was always the aim. We knew it was going to be hard but you always set your sights high and fortunately we had a fantastic season and achieved that goal.

“Harry Redknapp [the Tottenham manager] has been able to get the best out of largely the same group of players who were in a bad situation when he took over.

“To then get the club’s player of the year award was great. At the start of the season, I was out through injury but after I broke into the team it was fantastic.

“Now to be in the World Cup squad is fantastic and it’s always been a dream of mine to play for England and it was nice to play some part in the game yesterday.”

As for England’s chances this summer, he claimed: “I have confidence in the squad to succeed. When you look at the quality of the players, it’s scary how good they are.

“We’ve got world-class players here and I am sure we can do well in the World Cup.”

Dawson could line up alongside his Spurs team-mate Ledley King in South Africa. He said: “Ledley is a top-class centre-half. When he has been fit this last season, he has shown that. He has been playing at the level everyone knows he can play at.”

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• Striker believes team-mate can be among world’s best
• ‘There are not many as good as him,’ Crouch says

Peter Crouch claims England will have a “world-class” central defender at their disposal if Ledley King can remain fit for the World Cup finals.

Crouch has known of King’s qualities for more than a decade since his first spell at Tottenham as a schoolboy. And the striker has seen at first hand King’s impact at White Hart Lane since returning to the club for a second spell.

King is part of Fabio Capello’s provisional squad of 30 for South Africa and is likely to be named in the final 23. Crouch believes he will be a key figure if he can manage the knee problem which has blighted his career.

“Ledley has been brilliant. I’ve known Ledley for a lot of years and I know what a superb player he is,” said Crouch. “I’ve known Ledley since I was 13 in my first spell at Spurs. He was fantastic even then. Even then you knew he was going to be world-class and he has proven that. As long as he can prove his fitness, he will be up there as one of the best centre-halves at the World Cup.

“He has proved his quality this season, hopefully he has proved his fitness. He played the last three games of the season, all for the 90 minutes, he came through those and trained this week with England as well.”

Crouch added: “It is a big boost because he is such a quality player and everyone would be happy to have him in their squad. Ledley has to be managed a bit different to the rest of the players. He has to do his own thing and train when he feels capable of it.

“Without a doubt, the manager thinks it is worthwhile him coming and, on his day when he is fit, there are not many as good as him.”

Crouch has also welcomed the recall to the squad of another centre-back in Jamie Carragher, whom he played alongside during his spell at Liverpool. “Jamie brings a great deal of experience. He has played at the top level for a long, long time now,” he said. “I played with Jamie for three years at Liverpool and he is a leader and has great experience – and having that experience at major tournaments certainly helps.”

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Harry Redknapp says his Spurs defender is so good he should be in England’s squad despite his chronic knee problem

Fabio Capello likes rules. Order, structure, convention and, above all, control are terribly important to an England coach disinclined to indulge mavericks and misfits.

Due solely to the misfortune inflicted by his troublesome left knee, Ledley King falls firmly into the latter category. The Tottenham Hotspur centre-half never trains with his team-mates, instead maintaining fitness through specialist gym work which places no stress on the problem joint.

After games his knee balloons with fluid and requires drainage, then six days of strict rest. After that Harry Redknapp’s best defender – by some distance – is ready for combat once more. Capello would not normally contemplate taking such a crock to a World Cup but, with one good leg, King’s peerless positional sense and ability to snuff out danger before others realise its existence might make him an exception.

Redknapp is convinced a 29-year-old once described as “Europe’s best defender” by Thierry Henry is worth breaking the rules for. Moreover, with doubts about Rio Ferdinand’s fitness and John Terry’s form heightening by the day, Tottenham’s manager believes Capello will be unable to resist booking King a plane ticket to South Africa.

“I think Ledley will go,” Redknapp said. “He makes a massive difference. He needs six days before each game and, at the World Cup, there are six days between games. If England handle him right and take advice from our medical team, he can make it.”

Should Capello’s side reach the tournament’s latter stages matches will begin arriving at more frequent intervals but, if King managed to propel England beyond the quarter-finals, his inclusion could arguably be deemed worthwhile. By then he might be considered as important to Capello’s cause as the similarly weak-kneed defensive genius Paul McGrath once was to the Republic of Ireland’s.

The worry is what happens if the Italian gambles on King and Ferdinand only to see both break down. Accordingly, there is a legitimate case for taking a fitter centre half – perhaps Tottenham’s improving Michael Dawson – rather than King.

So far, so sensible but, on yesterday’s evidence at Old Trafford, King playing with one leg in plaster may be a better option than Dawson. That is not to say that Dawson played badly but it was far from his finest afternoon. In contrast his returning partner shone, with one instinctive first-half block which denied Dimitar Berbatov a goal highlighting King’s enduring value.

As he out-leapt Michael Carrick to equalise, his knee briefly seemed gloriously irrelevant. Sadly, reality intruded and it arguably betrayed him towards the end of a game in which he was beaten for the only significant occasion.

As a reborn Nani accelerated on to Federico Macheda’s pass, King, for once, proved unable to turn swiftly enough to prevent the Portuguese from subduing the ball with an adhesive left-foot touch before audaciously chipping Heurelho Gomes. Nani’s was a brilliant finish but it would have been intriguing to see whether a player blessed with King’s judgment plus the two good knees required to implement it consistently might have thwarted him.

The shame for King this summer is that, unusually, the World Cup will be played under cool skies. Scorching sun and searing heat are invariably good friends of anyone with dodgy knees and, allied to their restorative effect on a defender’s joints, high temperatures have the effect of slowing games down considerably.

Lower-tempo World Cup ties favour players boasting sophisticated football brains and would allow King to excel. Unfortunately the chill of a southern hemisphere winter might work against him by speeding things up.

Redknapp feels Capello should ignore such misgivings and simply accept King as damaged but still extraordinarily precious, not to mention worth tearing up the rule book for. “Ledley defies everything you’re supposed to do,” Redknapp said. “But I think Fabio will take him. He’s that important.”

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