Harry Kane set for his Tottenham return in Europa Conference League
Harry Kane returned to training with his Tottenham teammates on Tuesday after completing his period of isolation as the England captain prepares to make his first appearance of the season in the Europa Conference League.
Kane was absent from Tottenham’s opening-weekend victory against Manchester City on Sunday after being required to isolate following his return from holiday in the Bahamas, via Florida, and the Spurs head coach, Nuno Espírito Santo, said afterwards that he expected the 28-year-old to “get ready and help the team” in the play-off against the Portuguese side Paços de Ferreira on Thursday night.
City are still waiting to see whether Tottenham’s chairman, Daniel Levy, will sell for less than his £150m asking price and have prepared a bid worth €150m (£127m) for the player who won his third Premier League Golden Boot last season.
It is understood that, while Kane – who has three years left on his contract – is still keen to join City and believes he has a gentleman’s agreement with
Levy that would allow him to move, he is ready to return to action for the first time since leading England to the final of Euro 2020.
Having been unable to join his Spurs teammates as they prepared to face City last week because he was isolating, Kane is now poised to make his first appearance under Nuno, at the 9,000-capacity Estádio Capital do Móvel in northern Portugal.
“Everyone knows the quality he has, how he can affect games and how important he has been for Tottenham,” said his teammate Eric Dier. “That won’t change but obviously we are more than one player. Tottenham is the most important thing and the players that are playing. We need to do as well as we can with who is playing.”
Meanwhile, Internazionale are to open talks with Lautaro Martínez over a new contract after turning down bids worth up to €90m (£77m) from Spurs and Atlético Madrid. The 23-year-old scored 17 goals in Serie A last season before helping Argentina to win the Copa América.