England captain Harry Kane is NOT a suspension risk heading into this weekend’s World Cup quarter-final against Norway, despite confusion over a yellow card.
The Three Lions emerged from their battling win over Mexico at the Estadio Azteca with five players walking the disciplinary tightrope, though Jordan Henderson’s tournament-ending injury means the list has been reduced to one.
Kane, though, is not one of the England players that has to be careful against Norway in Miami on Saturday night.
The confusion stems from Kane, who is in the hunt for the World Cup 2026 Golden Boot, conceding a penalty for a high challenge on Mexico midfielder Brian Gutierrez in the second half.
Referee Alireza Faghani awarded the spot-kick after being sent to the VAR monitor.
The official was then surrounded by players from both teams and he produced a yellow card - seemingly in the direction of Kane and a graphic flashed up on the screen confirming that theory.
However, FIFA’s official website states that the 68th-minute yellow card was actually handed to Marc Guehi, thus proving that the graphic attributing it to Kane was an error.
As such, any fears that the England captain is at risk of a one-match ban heading into the clash with Norway have now been removed.
Due to an extra round of games being added at this World Cup, because of the expansion from 32 teams to 48, FIFA have adjusted their yellow card laws.
In previous years, if a player received two yellow cards across any of the matches before the semi-final, they received an automatic one-game suspension.
However, under FIFA's new regulations, yellow cards are wiped twice throughout the tournament. The first was after the group stage and the next will be after the quarter-finals.
Therefore, the England players walking the disciplinary tightrope against Norway are Guehi, Declan Rice, Jude Bellingham and Nico O’Reilly.
