England manager Gareth Southgate has no concerns over the fitness of captain Harry Kane for this summer's European Championship, saying the striker’s back injury is “pretty much clear”.
Kane missed Bayern Munich’s final two Bundesliga games with the same back problem which prompted head coach Thomas Tuchel to substitute him before the end of the dramatic late defeat to Real Madrid in the Champions League semi-final decider.
Before last weekend's trip to Hoffenheim, the departing Bayern boss claimed the issue was impacting Kane’s “everyday movements” and revealed he was “at the limit in Madrid”.
But Southgate, who named his 33-man provisional squad for Euro 2024 on Tuesday, says Kane's problem has already eased up.
“He is quite relaxed about it,” the England manager said.
“I think a sensible decision was taken not to push for [Bayern’s last games], but our understanding of it is that it is something that is pretty much clear now. Something like that can happen at any given moment as we all know.
“Back problems can just happen, [during] travel [or] whatever else but it is not something we are concerned about at this moment in time.”
Kane joined Bayern in a deal worth at least £100million from Tottenham last season to increase his chances of finally winning a team trophy.
But the Bavarian giants’ run of 11 straight titles came to an end as they finished a distant third, while they crashed out of the German Cup to lower-league opposition and were beaten by Real in the Champions League.
“On a personal level it won’t be nice for him and I am sure he will be aware of what people will say about that, but his love for this challenge and desire to make this work has never wavered and he is definitely looking forward to this tournament coming up,” said Southgate.
“He has sort of done his bit [for Bayern], the number of goals he has scored, it has been a slightly different role there I would say as he has been encouraged to stay higher and a little bit less involved in the build-up.
“There are pros and cons to that, he is a brilliant footballer when he comes and links the play.
“You have to have players around [him] and he seemed to develop a nice relationship with Leroy Sane in particular doing that.
“He will of course be disappointed that he hasn’t won the league but there has been a lot going on at the football club, which has been obvious from the outside.
“But he has delivered what we thought he would deliver in terms of goals in that league and I know the club are super happy with what he has done.”
