Too VAR to back out now
Boost as Kane is penned in for last two Prem games
JOSE MOURINHO has named the day he expects Harry Kane to return – and it is better late than never for England.
Kane has flown to Barbados for warm-weather treatment after the hamstring operation which threatened to make him a serious doubt to captain England at Euro 2020.
But Spurs boss Mourinho has calmed fears his top scorer would be out for the season by revealing he is on schedule to play in the last two Premier League games in May.
That would give Kane more than a month to regain full fitness before the Three Lions’ Euro opener with Croatia at Wembley on June 14.
He was injured on New Year’s Day at Southampton. Asked when he thought Kane might be back, Mourinho said: “The Leicester match (on May 9).”
Tottenham end their campaign at Crystal Palace on May 17.
Kane finished last season with a race against time to recover from an ankle injury for the Champions League Final in Madrid, but was well off the pace in the defeat by Liverpool.
England boss Gareth Southgate would face a similar dilemma if Kane, 26, reported fit but short of match practice but Mourinho added: “That’s a problem for Southgate and Steve Holland, not for me.”
‘The Special One’ was even more bullish about the timing of Spurs’ winter break and the demand to play at Aston Villa on the Sunday before a midweek first leg against RB Leipzig in the Champions League last 16. He said: “I don’t like the way it is because there is no attention to when you play Champions League.
“It would be much more normal for us to be playing this weekend and not playing before we play against Leipzig. But no, you have a break – and then you play against Aston Villa Sunday – not Saturday or Friday, but Sunday.
“So they gave you 10 days of break but then you play on the Sunday and then the Wednesday. So, for me, the break doesn’t make any sense the way it is.”
Mourinho will put out a strong side at home to Southampton tonight but does not accept the FA Cup is Spurs’ likeliest route back to Europe next season.
He said: “It’s not easier – there are lots of matches to play and we try to finish sixth, fifth, fourth and I think we have a chance.
“We are going to fight for that. To win the FA Cup is also very, very difficult.” (above)
NEW Premier League chief executive Richard Masters has told fans that VAR is here to stay.
But he admits the system has affected the passion of the game – and hinted at changes next season.
A YouGov survey released yesterday revealed that more than two-thirds of fans think VAR has made the game less enjoyable.
But Masters said: “It’s here to stay and certainly it’s going to be with us next season.
“Has it affected the passion of the game? I don’t think you can have VAR without acknowledging that is going to happen.
“The question is whether that trade-off is worth it.
“We are at 94 per cent key match decisions correct now and 97 per cent of assistants’ decisions are correct.
“Some of the things we want to do are outside of the extremities of the IFAB protocol.
“We would probably want to show a bit more of the action live on screen but we are not allowed to do that.”