England captain Harry Kane’s back injury “should not be a problem” for Euro 2024, according to manager Gareth Southgate.
Kane was substituted during the second half of Bayern Munich’s Champions League semi-final second-leg defeat at Real Madrid a fortnight ago and subsequently missed the last two Bundesliga games.
Outgoing Bayern boss Thomas Tuchel raised concerns about Kane’s fitness by saying there was a “complete blockage” and he struggled to move.
But Southgate has allayed those fears, including the striker in his provisional 33-man squad for this summer’s tournament in Germany.
Asked if Kane was OK, Southgate replied: “We think so. He’s obviously missed the end of the season with a back issue.
“But our understanding from our end and from the medical team at Bayern is that that should not be a problem once we get back into training.”
Kane is one of 12 attacking players listed in Southgate’s initial squad and the England boss has an array of talent at the top end of the pitch.
And Southgate is content with the amount of players who can contribute goals.
“Not just Harry, Raheem (Sterling) as well was crucial in the last Euros especially for getting the goals in big games,” he told BBC Radio 5 Live.
Our understanding from our end and from the medical team at Bayern is that that should not be a problem once we get back into training— Gareth Southgate on Harry kane
“We’ve shared that load a lot more. You can see across that forward line, the number of goals they’ve scored for their clubs this year.
“But also then for us people like Bukayo (Saka) have weighed in with a lot of goals for us as well, so you need those options.
“We need people to be able to come in and refresh the team. It’s the physical demands of a seven-game tournament we found out twice.
“And to go the distance you need good depth in the squad and the ability to refresh the team as well, so we feel within the squad that we’ve picked we’ve got that opportunity.”
