Ike Opara is hoping to play a major role in Sporting Kansas&rsquo; quest to challenge for honours in the new season.<br /><br />Injuries have limited the former USA youth international&rsquo;s involvement in recent seasons, playing only 6 games before he was ruled out for the rest of the 2015 campaign due to a ruptured left Achilles tendon and the previous year he broke his ankle in March.<br /><br />&ldquo;I&rsquo;m always ready. Even the days that I&rsquo;m not, I convince myself that I am. I&rsquo;ve never looked at it as, Am I ready or am I not? I just do it. Hopefully, I do it well when I play,&rdquo; Ike Opara said.<br /><br />&ldquo;I know how hard I work, and I&rsquo;m not going to let other people label me as injury-prone or however. <br /><br />&ldquo;Whether that may be the case or not, for me, I&rsquo;m not trying to worry about what other people say. I know what I have to do.&rdquo;<br /><br />In their first competitive fixture of 2016, Sporting Kansas are guests to Seattle Sounders on Sunday afternoon at CenturyLink Field.<b><br /><br />Igho Kingsley</b><br /><br />Photo Credit : mlssoccer.com<b><br /></b>