Mauricio Pochettino says that Harry Kane will play no part in Tottenham Hotspur’s Champions League tie against Bayer Leverkusen on Wednesday night but he suggested that he could return for the derby at Arsenal on Sunday.
The Tottenham manager also reported that Toby Alderweireld would not feature against Leverkusen and it sounded doubtful that he would be back for Arsenal while Erik Lamela is out with a hip problem.
Kane had trained on Tuesday morning – in front of the TV cameras – to raise the prospect of him making his comeback from the ankle ligament injury that he suffered against Sunderland on 18 September. But he completed only half of the session and Pochettino said that he would not train fully until Thursday. The derby against Arsenal has long been pencilled in as Kane’s return date.
“Tomorrow no, he will not be on the bench,” Pochettino said. “It’s good to see him today, warming up with the team and being involved in some exercises. But for tomorrow, he is not ready. Will he be available on Sunday? Maybe, maybe. He made half the training session with the team today. And then, it was a specific session for him and, for Toby, it was the same.”
Alderweireld hurt the nerve in his knee at West Bromwich Albion on 15 October and he has not played since. It had been hoped that Alderweireld would be back for the game at home against Leicester City last Saturday but Pochettino seemed to suggest that he had suffered a setback.
“Maybe Thursday for Harry; with Toby, we are not sure – we have some slight problems,” Pochettino said, when he was asked when he expected each of them to return to full training. “But it will be good for Harry, maybe Thursday, to start to train or to be involved in the whole session with the group.”
Pochettino said that Lamela, who had missed the Leicester game because of illness, had felt a problem in his hip during the training session on Tuesday.
Kane’s fitness dominated the pre-match media conference and, were he to return against Arsenal, it would raise the prospect of him being selected by the England manager, Gareth Southgate, for the fixtures against Scotland and Spain on 11 and 15 November. In that scenario, Pochettino would want Kane to be handled with care but he said that he would never stand in the way of a player being called up by his country.
“If he is available to play on Sunday against Arsenal, then it will be difficult for us to stop him, if the national team call him,” Pochettino said. “If Harry will be available, then that is because he is available to play. We cannot stop that. Then it is [up to] the manager. It is up to Gareth, if he wants to select him or not.
“You know we are pro-national team, always, for all the players. If Harry is available [on Sunday], we are not stupid enough to say: ‘No, Harry is out, to try to protect him [from international duty], so that, after two weeks, he can be with us.
“We want the best for the team and for the player. It’s true that maybe it makes more sense for the national team to say: ‘OK, stay at home. Stay with Tottenham and train for two weeks. It’s important to build Harry’s fitness and be better after.’
“But, if they consider that they need Harry to play for the national team and he is available to play against Arsenal, then we cannot stop [them]. If I select him to play on Sunday against Arsenal, we open the door for the national team to select him too.
“I would never ask Gareth not to pick him. Never. If he calls and asks me, OK, I will give my opinion and my advice, but it’s his job to recognise every single situation about the player – not only with Harry but with the whole squad. He must decide if it would be good for Harry to be involved in the international duty with the national team or not. We cannot say anything. Only if he asks me, I will give my opinion. If not, no.”
