Mitch King Biography

King, 20, has had a tough start to his career at Melbourne after rupturing the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee in his first year at the club in April 2016.

The 200cm big man returned to the VFL fold after missing the first month of the season, starting in the VFL Development League and then for Casey's senior team.

"We really liked the way Mitch developed through the year and we look forward to him having a good pre-season out of rehab and hopefully he can build into next season," Melbourne football manager Josh Mahoney said.

The unlucky King has been making good progress after hurting his knee in April last season, but the Demons are taking a cautious approach with him.

It is the second time he has required a reconstruction on the joint, after first suffering the injury in 2014.

King was taken from the ground on a stretcher about half way through the first quarter of Casey's 144-point VFL win against Frankston.

"A player fell across his knee, and in that situation it’s likely any player would have suffered a similar injury, regardless of their history," Demons football manager Josh Mahoney said.

"He’ll look to maximise his time out of football and use it as an opportunity to put some weight onto his frame.

"We’ll also work with Mitch on a program for his continued football education.”

"The thing with Mitch is, he was coming off an ACL and he had a pretty strong year," Melbourne recruiting boss Jason Taylor said.

"We felt like he would go around as a 19-year-old with Murray next year, but he showed enough that he's got pretty good ruck craft.

"If you speak to anyone that's had anything to do with him, they're really strong on his leadership qualities so we feel like he's made of the right stuff."