Three Lions fire blank

GARETH SOUTHGATE will be a nervous wreck every time Harry Kane pulls on his boots next season.

The England skipper was conspicuous by his absence for 64 minutes as England knocked and knocked but couldn’t blow the door down at Molineux.

Their best chances fell to Raheem Sterling and Mason Mount.

They were the kind of opportunities that Kane would dream about in only his sweetest of slumbers.

Yet with the nation’s 50-goal captain rested on the bench for most of the game, Italy keeper Gianluigi Donnarumma had an easy night. Kane’s late penalty salvaged a draw against Germany in Munich in midweek – but England are running on empty at the end of a gruelling campaign.

They have now gone four-and-a-half hours without scoring a goal from open play.

Southgate will be praying that his skipper stays healthy with Tottenham before his squad flies out to the World Cup.

These Nations League games are being used by Southgate as preparation for next winter in the desert.

But it wasn’t Italy the European champions that England faced in the West Midlands.

It was an Azzurri team being rebuilt by Roberto Mancini after the humiliation of World Cup play-off elimination at the hands of North Macedonia.

The team that Southgate sent out was hardly the strongest hand the England manager could have dealt himself.

And at least Aaron Ramsdale served notice that he will be putting the pressure on Jordan Pickford to go to Qatar as England’s No.1 with some outstanding saves.

Southgate gave Ramsdale, Reece James, Fikayo Tomori, Jack Grealish, James