Harry Kane will miss England’s friendly at home to Brazil at Wembley Stadium on Saturday and Cole Palmer and Jordan Henderson are injury doubts.
Three Lions captain Kane hurt his ankle when he collided with a post late in Bayern Munich’s win at Darmstadt on Saturday, although the issue was not considered serious enough to stop him from travelling for international duty.
Palmer, who has top-scored for Chelsea with 14 goals and contributed 12 assists during an outstanding season since signing from Manchester City, and fellow midfielder Henderson are also injured by could feature when Belgium visit Wembley for a friendly on Tuesday.
“I would say Cole and Hendo have a better chance of Belgium than Harry,” said manager Gareth Southgate. “He would be extremely doubtful for that.”
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Bukayo Saka left the squad on Friday after the Arsenal forward sustained a minor muscle injury.
Jarrod Bowen, Phil Foden, Anthony Gordon, Marcus Rashford, Ivan Toney and Ollie Watkins are among Southgate’s remaining options in attack as he prepares to name a squad for Uefa Euro 2024, which England begin in Germany against Serbia on June 16.
Kane injury gives others ‘opportunity’
“It’s a brilliant opportunity for other players,” he said. “We need to see other players ahead of the Euros.
“If we were playing lesser teams, you’d still have that question in your mind if they played well: ‘OK, how are they going to be against the next level of opposition?’ So from our perspective, it’s a great exercise and opportunity.
🗣️ “It’s not been high on my list of priorities”
Gareth Southgate gives his opinion on the new England kit. pic.twitter.com/ZcpLAPAFab
— Sky Sports News (@SkySportsNews) March 22, 2024
“Everybody recognises we only have two matches before we name what will probably be a longer squad at first in the summer.
“But we don’t need to build these games up, the quality of the opponent does that. The timing in the year does that.
“I’ve seen new players who have fitted in brilliantly. Our more regular players and senior players make that as comfortable as possible. We’re really looking forward to the challenge.”
Bundesliga top scorer Kane has been responsible for nine of the 23 goals netted by England players since the start of Euro 2024 qualifying.
