Hammond: Raring To Go

The 30-year-old double promotion winner brings a wealth of experience to a hugely competitive City midfield, having also made 37 appearances for Brighton and Hove Albion in the Sky Bet Championship last season.

Hammond was at the heart of the Seagulls midfield that finished fourth in the league in 2012/13, and played the full 90 minutes for the opposition when City visited the AMEX in April – the 489 passes Leicester faced from Hammond’s Brighton that day was a season high.

A combative and tough tackling midfielder with a real eye for a pass, Hammond has over 400 career appearances to his credit and will be available for The Foxes’ first game after the international break, when they take on FA Cup holders and Europa League hopefuls Wigan Athletic at King Power Stadium on 14 September.

A delighted Hammond linked up with his team-mates for training on Tuesday morning and now has high hopes for the season based on what he saw.

“It’s nice to be here,” Hammond told It’s a massive Club with big ambitions, a really good squad of players, a good manager and I can’t wait to get started.

“There are some top players here.  I trained with the boys this (Tuesday) morning and you can see why we’ve had such a good start to the season. We really want to push on, we had a good season last year and we’ll see what we can do.

“It’s a hard league and last season was an unbelievable one in the Championship, everyone could beat everyone, but you have to take it a game at a time and be ready for every situation.

“We’ll do well this year with the squad we’ve got, I know we will.

“The boys are buzzing, we’ve had a really good start to the season and you can see that. By all accounts we were unlucky on Saturday with decisions not going our way, but the boys have been playing well and picking up points which is the most important thing. Last season is in the past.”

Hammond is fighting for a place in a midfield that will have Matty James suspended for the clash with Wigan on 14 September, but the Hastings-born number 7 is under no illusions about how hard it will be to break into the side.

He added: “There’s strong competition at the Club and you want that. It brings the best out in the players and I’ve got to be on top of my game to get in the team. You want to play with good players and we’ve got some really good central midfield players here.

“I’m good [fitness-wise], I’ve been training hard at Southampton and had a good pre-season. Although I’ve not played many games, I’ll be raring to go, so if I’m called upon I’ll be ready.

“I’ll work hard and let the manager have a look at me and he’ll make the decision.”

Having helped the Saints to automatic promotion in the 2011/12 Championship campaign as captain, Hammond knows exactly what to expect from a competitive division.

“I bring a bit of experience,” revealed Hammond. “I’ve played in this league before and got promoted, so now I just want to get to know the lads, show them what I can do and be a part of it. I like to get on the ball, pass it and I like the physical side of the game as well.

“There’s a lot of hard work and a lot of games. You need a squad of players and week in. week out, picking up wins is important. You’ve got to be ready for every test, because there are all kinds of different tests. There are teams that like to play direct and teams that like to play football so it’s a very good league.”