Lennon's pre-season fear after surgery

[Mighty T.A.L.]

Aaron Lennon was forced to undergo knee surgery on Tuesday night amid fears that he will miss the start of the Premiership season.

The Tottenham winger, who suffered the injury just 10 minutes into the B team's 3-1 victory over Albania last Friday, was ruled out of the senior squad on Saturday morning.

Lennon damaged his cartilage in the game at Turf Moor and after consulting Tottenham's medical staff on Monday, the winger agreed to have the operation as soon as possible.

The Spurs midfielder, who has struggled to recapture the form that catapulted him into England's World Cup squad last summer, has been told he should be out for six weeks.

That will take him to the start of Tottenham's pre-season training programme, but he will miss the start of the season if he suffers any setbacks.

England head coach Steve McClaren had earmarked Lennon for a starting role against Brazil on Friday but Joe Cole is likely to take his place.

McClaren said: "Lennon has great potential. He is still young, he made a great impact at the World Cup. Unfortunately, we have hardly had Aaron this season.

"He's had bad injuries. It's just unfortunate. We haven't seen enough of the players who can make a difference to our performance."

Source: The Daily Mail