JOSE’S KANE PAIN AS GARETH PLANS TO START SKIPPER
TOTTENHAM fear Harry Kane will aggravate his thigh injury if England manager Gareth Southgate sticks with a plan to start his captain against Denmark. Southgate will put himself on a collision course with Spurs boss Jose Mourinho if Kane suffers any ill-effects tomorrow. The England boss has already risked angering the Portuguese by introducing Kane for the final 25 minutes of the 2-1 win over Belgium at Wembley on Sunday. Speaking after the match, Southgate tried to head off any controversy by insisting that Kane was merely suffering from muscle fatigue. However, Sportsmail understands Kane carried a thigh problem into this set of England fixtures. Mourinho is concerned about the welfare of their prolific striker ahead of his return to the club on Thursday, with Spurs facing a derby with West Ham in the Premier League on Sunday.
Mourinho asked Southgate to be careful with his stars, particularly Kane, during England’s triple-header. But Southgate intends to start his skipper tomorrow and said: ‘Medically, there have been conversations (with Tottenham), because that would always be the case. ‘He reported Sunday (October 4) and we gave players that reported on Sunday, who weren’t involved in the Wales game, two days’ recovery. ‘He started to train on the Wednesday and was a little unhappy with how he felt, so he worked with our medical team for the next couple of days. ‘We scanned just to be certain, but it’s a muscular fatigue issue rather than an injury, so it just needed a bit more confidence. ‘He knew by then he could push on a little bit, but he just needed more confidence in it, so his training week really wasn’t suitable to start the Belgium game. All being well, he’ll be good to start Wednesday.’ Southgate does not intend to make wholesale changes but the England manager has vowed not to start any player in all three of this month’s matches — Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Kieran Trippier are the only players to start both games so far. Southgate will also check on Jordan Henderson’s availability after the Liverpool captain’s first outing for three weeks against Belgium. Meanwhile, Kevin De Bruyne has pulled out of Belgium’s Nations League match with Iceland tomorrow due to injury. He came off at Wembley appearing to be in discomfort after 73 minutes. The news will concern Manchester City, who host Arsenal in the league on Saturday.