Michael Dawson Plans On Coming Back Strong, Playing A Lot

Entering this season, you would have been hard pressed to find someone who didn't think that Michael Dawson was Tottenham Hotspur's best central defender. When healthy, he's been Spurs' most consistent player on the back line since the 2009-10 campaign, but unfortunately, he hasn't been healthy over the last two seasons. Dawson made just 13 appearances for Spurs last season, and his year was ended by a freak injury in March that required surgery.

On this week's edition of Wheeler Dealer Radio, Brian and I speculated that Dawson might not be ready to start the season, and that Younes Kaboul will probably partner either Steven Caulker or a newly purchased central defender to start the year. Dawson apparently has other plans.

It should come as no surprise that Dawson is working hard at rehabilitating his injury and that he plans to get fit quickly in order to start a lot of games this season. Sky Sports passed along some quotes from an interview with Hotspur Magazine, and by some quotes I mean a whole ton of quotes. Without any original commentary. It's almost stealing. In any event, I don't have a link to the original story, probably because it's only in print.

After the jump, you can find the most relevant quotes.

"Now all I want to concentrate on is getting myself fully fit because I'm already looking forward to pre-season.

"Normally I rest for about three weeks during the break before starting to plan for the following term by keeping myself ticking over with some stamina work - but this time I'm going away to get myself fit throughout the summer.

"I'm determined to make up for lost time, have a good season and play lots of games. I'm single-minded in that because you realise how much you love the game when participation's taken away from you."

Dawson doesn't give an exact timetable for his recovery or indicate how far along he is, but it's certainly encouraging that he's talking about preseason. Hopefully we hear something similar about Huddlestone shortly. I really want to see these guys get a few friendly matches under their belts before we head into the new year.