Gareth Southgate has confirmed England captain Harry Kane is fit to start against Denmark on Wednesday and has dismissed claims of a club vs country row with Tottenham.
Kane was only on the bench for England’s match with Belgium on Sunday and it sparked fears the striker had suffered an injury setback in training.
The 27-year-old was diagnosed with muscle soreness, though, and he managed to come on for the final 24 minutes at Wembley as a substitute.
Kane has trained since then and is now fully fit to start against Denmark on Wednesday in the Nations League, with Southgate adamant the striker’s club, Tottenham, have no issues with how England are looking after him.
Spurs boss Jose Mourinho had stressed before the international break that Kane’s minutes needed to be managed, but Southgate says all conversations with Tottenham have been fine and there is no problem at all.
“I don’t really understand the story because he has been fully fit since the end of last week, just before the last game,” said Southgate.
“He would have started the last game but hadn’t had enough training time really. He was obviously fine during the [Belgium] game. So he is fit, available.
“I didn’t really understand the stories that have been run, so where that is coming from is certainly not the conversations we’ve been having with Spurs medically and is not something that is really affecting us in the camp.
Asked if Kane is able to start on Wednesday, Southgate said: “Absolutely. He hasn’t had an injury.
“He was feeling muscle soreness, delayed muscle soreness, which can happen to athletes. But there was no injury at any point.
“We don’t risk players. I said this before the camp last week. I have been a player, my priority is always the welfare of players.
“We have never risked a player. We have ended up on very rare occasions with a couple of injuries during matches. That’s pretty much unavoidable.
“But we have never lost a player through an error in terms of our training loading and we pride ourselves on looking after the players.
“We want them fit. We want them as sharp as possible for the games. Our issue with Harry before Sunday’s game was to be able to perform at the highest level.
“Now he has got another additional couple of days training in him it is not even an issue.”
