Southgate: Kane is good to go

ENGLAND captain Harry Kane trained ahead of this evening’s World Cup clash against the United States after manager Gareth Southgate laid to rest fears of a foot injury for the striker.

Kane suffered a knock from a challenge by Morteza Pouraliganji in England’s 6-2 win against Iran on Monday – the national team’s biggest ever win at the start of a major tournament.

The Tottenham striker, who has a history of ankle problems, did play on for 25 minutes, but was seen limping after the game and went for a precautionary scan.

Southgate revealed Kane had trained with the rest of the squad behind closed doors on Wednesday and he also joined his team-mates on the pitch at England’s Al Wakrah camp when the television cameras were present yesterday. Southgate said: “He is good, he has worked a little bit more individually on Wednesday but he will back in with the team on Thursday and good for the game.

“We checked him out, just to see. I think sometimes when you are treating things it is important to know exactly what is there and that was all good.

“It is not so much Harry’s ankle. It is more the foot. It was a poor challenge really but I think it is one that fortunately we have got away with reasonably lightly.”

Kane has had seven separate ankle injuries during his career – all of them sustained while playing for Spurs – so there was natural concern when the striker went down.

Asked whether he has been holding his breath, Southgate added: “No, I was when he went down on the pitch! But once he carried on playing everything has been good.”