HOW DO YOU SOLVE A PROBLEM LIKE HARRY?

They say traditions are few and far between in modern football, but Tottenham appear to have developed an unwanted one in recent years.

Harry Kane’s knack for ankle knocks is well-known – he has suffered five in the past three seasons, missing 31 matches in total – and clearly that isn’t good news.

But does Tottenham’s biggest problem come in the aftermath of his hasty returns, not when he’s actually missing? You can’t knock Kane’s desire to play in his club’s first ever Champions League final, but he was a long way off being fully sharp and it was certainly a factor in Spurs’ relatively flat performance in Madrid.

It wasn’t the first time that the England skipper had returned to action unexpectedly quickly, only to fail to live up to his extraordinary high standards.

In November 2017, Kane returned from a hamstring injury in time to battle through a 3-1 victory over Real Madrid and a 1-0 win over Crystal Palace, though he scored in neither. Spurs then slumped to a four-match winless run in the league. They also stumbled shortly after he came back from an ankle injury the following April. And when Kane missed 16 games in the second half of 2018-19, split across two spells on the sidelines, Spurs toiled when he played in the intervening period.

If Mauricio Pochettino needs to persuade his player to take his time in recuperating from injury, then Kane might be convinced by Spurs finding a new, suitable understudy. However, Son Heung-min has generally excelled when asked to lead the line in Kane’s absence. Although a like-for-like replacement would be ideal, the South Korea star can be trusted to the extent that Kane doesn’t need to rush himself back into action.

Naturally, though, it would also be quite handy if the 26-year-old could avoid persistent injury in the first place, and Pochettino has hinted at a possible way of doing that – even if he doesn’t think it’ll happen.

“With the experience that he has now, in the future maybe he is going to avoid some situations like the other day,” Pochettino revealed in the wake of Kane’s most recent injury, sustained with an unnecessary late challenge on Fabian Delph in the Champions League quarter-final first leg win over Manchester City. “It was a challenge with not too much need. But he is how he is. He’s strong; he wants to challenge for every single ball with the opponent.”

Kane will always be competitive, and he’ll always score goals. But unless he learns to pick his battles, perhaps he’ll always pick up injuries, too.