Harry Kane: Lee Carsley 'won’t take a chance' with injury as he confirms England striker won't start against Greece
Published 09/10/2024 at 23:16 GMT+1
England are in Nations League action this week as they face Greece on Thursday and then Finland on Sunday. Harry Kane may not be involved against Greece due to injury, with interim manager Lee Carsley saying he "won't take a chance" with the striker. John Stones is set to captain England in the absence of Kane, while Jack Grealish is an injury doubt after missing training.
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England interim manager Lee Carsley has confirmed Harry Kane won’t start against Greece in the Nations League as he “won’t take a chance” with the striker’s fitness.
Kane, who won his 100th cap in his last international appearance, suffered an injury during Bayern Munich’s draw with Eintracht Frankfurt on Sunday.
He has joined up with the England squad and could still feature against Greece at Wembley on Thursday.
However, Carsley has suggested it is more likely that he will feature against Finland on Sunday.
“Harry’s nursing an injury, a small knock. Something that we won’t take a chance with,” said Carsley.
On the chances of Kane facing Greece, Carsley added: “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.”
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Kane’s absence from the starting XI means John Stones is set to captain England for the first time.
“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.”
Stones will be making his 82nd appearance for England.
His Manchester City team-mate Jack Grealish could miss out due to an injury that saw him miss training on Wednesday.
“We’ll assess Jack later,” said Carsley.
“Jack just picked up a slight knock yesterday but our attitude would be we wouldn’t gamble with any of the players.
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“I think it’s important that we put them first rather than ourselves.”
England are second in Group B2 behind leaders Greece on goal difference.
Both sides have won their two matches in the group so far.
Stones likens Carsley's style to Guardiola
Manchester City centre-half Stones has seen similarities between the philosophies of his managers for club and country, likening Lee Carsley to Pep Guardiola.
Carsley has tried to put more emphasis on fluid positioning and possession at the start of his tenure, and England enjoyed 76% and 79% possession in their Nations League matches against the Republic of Ireland and Finland respectively.
And with City stars Grealish and Rico Lewis returning to the fold, Stones saw "a lot of similarities'"between the England boss and Guardiola when asked whether they have shared approaches to the game.
“In ways, yes, definitely,” Stones said. “Everyone has got their own unique style and I think there are similarities throughout every manager in what they want.
"There are a lot of similarities between Lee and Pep in how they see the game and how they want us to play and I think we saw that last month when we played the two games. It’s been great for me with the likenesses of how we play.”
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