thanks for the advice guys. I have read through several threads by Robertson and Cressey and they do provide a lot of good information.

My knee problem is a tricky one. When I do squatting movements I get a pain on my medial knee. I also have small floating bone fragments on the lateral side, that most of the time after a few reps, move around and get stuck or something and my lateral knee tightens up and the pain is unbearable. I just have to move the bony bit with my hand and all is good again. I can run and ride my bike, it's just weight bearing exercises that causes problems. I deadlift with smaller plates, maybe the size of 35's. This causes no problem whatsoever for my knees. I have done reps with about 110kg and no problems with the knees. I've seen a couple of therapists but no joy.

I foam roll my legs, itb and hips, although not on a regular basis. I should probably get strict with this.

I think I'll just keep doing my deadlifts and start working in some very light split squats and progress very slowly and see how I go. When the knee feels good enough, I'll start with light squats. I've tried this approach before, but I rushed it and started adding too much weight. This time I'll take it really slow.