Interim boss Lee Carsley says he “won’t take a chance” with Harry Kane’s fitness in England’s Nations League clash against Greece as the skipper deals with a knock.
A month on from celebrating his 100th cap with a match-winning brace against Finland, the 31-year-old could miss Thursday’s Wembley return against the Group B2 leaders.
Kane sustained a knock during Bayern Munich’s Bundesliga clash with Eintracht Frankfurt on Sunday and has been unable to train with the group despite getting the green light to stay with England.
The skipper did an individual training programme on both Tuesday and Wednesday, with Carsley keen to be careful with Kane ahead of facing Greece and Finland this Sunday.
“Harry’s nursing an injury, a small knock,” the interim England manager said. “Something that we won’t take a chance with.”
Asked to clarify whether Kane will be on the bench at Wembley, he said: “We’re not ruling him out yet of the game, but he won’t start the game.
“Hopefully he’ll be in contention then for Sunday (against Finland) but, again, time will tell. It’s not something I think we should be rushing.”
Kane’s issue means long-serving team-mate John Stones will lead England out as captain for the first time on the night of his 82nd cap.
“It was a great conversation that I was able to have with John last night, to have that responsibility to ask him to captain the team,” Carsley said.
“It’s a brilliant achievement for John. Something that he deserves – the amount of caps he’s got, the experience he’s got, the level of professionalism that he shows within the squad, the example he is to the younger players.
“It was a great conversation to have.”
Tino Livramento and Curtis Jones will be in the squad after being moved up from the under-21s on the eve of a match that Jack Grealish could also miss out on.
“We’ll assess Jack later,” Carsley said of the winger, who sat out training on Wednesday as a precaution.
“Jack just picked up a slight knock yesterday but our attitude would be we wouldn’t gamble with any of the players.
“I think it’s important that we put them first rather than ourselves.”
On calling up Livramento and Jones – uncapped players that have both previously been in senior squads – Carsley added: “Bringing Tino and Curtis in, they cover a lot of positions between them because of their versatility.”
Morgan Gibbs-White, Ezri Konsa and Kobbie Mainoo had to pull out of this squad, like Phil Foden, Ollie Watkins and Cole Palmer had to in September.
The latter was named England’s men’s player of the year on Tuesday and the in-form Chelsea star has been tipped to make his first competitive international start against Greece.
“Cole’s in fantastic form,” said Carsley, who also has Jude Bellingham to call upon after he missed last month’s matches through injury.
“I think he’s carried that into this week. He’s such an exciting player, a player that I’ve worked with for four or five years now.
“Cole, along with a lot of the other attacking players, have put themselves into a great position to start the game tomorrow.
“It’s a game that we’re really looking forward to against a tough Greece team, so hopefully we can get a good performance.”