Manager Thomas Tuchel has confirmed that Harry Kane will miss England’s friendly against Wales on Thursday and revealed the three players who will compete for the captain’s armband in his absence.
Kane has been in action for Bayern Munich this season, scoring 18 goals in just 10 competitive games, taking the Bundesliga giants to an astonishing 103 goals in 106 games.
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However, the 32-year-old will miss the match at Wembley after picking up a bruise in Bayern’s 3-0 win over Frankfurt.
“Harry will miss the game,” coach Tuchel said at the pre-match press conference. “He took a kick in the last game against Bayern Munich. It was too risky for him to take another kick and it will be a back-and-forth situation in terms of pain. I think we are confident that he will be ready for the game against Latvia.”
Afterwards, the England manager was asked about Kane’s 13th place in the Ballon d’Or, and admitted that he was not paying much attention to individual awards.
He added: “You never know when the Ballon d’Or is or what the ranking is. I’m the last person to see it and know. I’m not a huge fan of individual awards because I truly believe that you can only win through football. As a team player the field is too big and his performance is outstanding. He should definitely be higher than 13th place.”
Tuchel then revealed who will be the three members of the squad who will lead the Three Lions at Wembley.
He said: “The captaincy options would be Jordan Henderson, John Stones or Declan Rice.
“I really like having John Stones in camp. I saw how gutsy he was last time he had to leave camp. He’s a deep thinker, intelligent, very sensitive. It’s great to have him with Jordan and Declan. They have the attitude you need to be a professional player, a team player.”
“They have a very high level and it’s infectious and having them in camp means everyone is playing at a very high level. That’s why John is a top leader.”
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Regarding what he wanted to take away from the match, Tuchel added: “If possible, we could have started with the same squad. We could have found other solutions. We had very little time to prepare for the game. We had very little time to prepare for the game. We could have found other solutions.”
“I think it’s going to be difficult and complicated against a well-coached team. It’s going to be very complicated. We have plenty of time, so we don’t have to pay too much attention to the lineup because we have four days in the middle. That should be fine.”
“For me, the preparation for the match hasn’t changed much (since it was a friendly). I don’t prepare the team less, I don’t have fewer meetings, I don’t have fewer meetings.”
“We’re just playing against our standards and the team set the standard last camp, which is very important because they never lower the standard.”
