Harry Kane is confident he has timed his run to hit “peak sharpness” as England’s Euro 2024 campaign enters the knockout stage, with Gareth Southgate also playing down fears over Jude Bellingham’s fitness.
Kane missed the end of the club season with Bayern Munich because of a back injury and has made a slow start to this summer’s tournament, despite opening his goalscoring account in the 1-1 draw with Denmark.
The 30-year-old has looked short of full match fitness and England desperately need their captain on song as they seek to ignite their slumbering campaign in Sunday’s last-16 meeting with Slovakia.
Kane, though, is not in unfamiliar territory, having looked short of his best at the start of both Euro 2020 and the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, failing to score in the group stage of either tournament.
However, the former Tottenham striker’s knockout record across those two campaigns is outstanding, with six goals in as many matches - a clear contrast with the 2018 World Cup in Russia, where he scored five times in the group but only once in three matches thereafter.
“It’s the process of tournament,” he said. “Naturally, you get physically stronger, you get sharper as you play more games. I feel like not just me but a lot of players come into their peak sharpness at the knockout stage. That’s what I’ve found in recent tournaments especially.
“It could be down to just the sharpness aspect but ultimately I enjoy these games. Knockout football is a different prospect to group stages. We’ve handled it well in the past and now it’s time to do that again.”
Bellingham is another player who has looked weary at times during the group stage, failing to kick on from an all-action display in the opening 45 minutes of the victory over Serbia that started the campaign.
The midfielder, who turned 21 on Saturday, made 42 appearances during a breakthrough first season at Real Madrid, which only ended in the Champions League final at the start of this month.
Following Tuesday’s 0-0 draw with Slovenia, he admitted to being “absolutely dead” but Southgate insists he has no concerns that the youngster might be on the cusp of burnout.
“When you’re walking off the pitch and you’ve given everything you're inevitably going to feel physically in a certain way and perhaps emotionally in a certain way,” the Three Lions boss said.
“I think he will have benefitted from the matches we’ve had and the recovery period in between, as have a number of players.
“But I’m not concerned about where he’s at in terms of his condition at all. He’s smiling a lot today, it’s a big day for him. It’s a reminder of his age and how well he deals with all the expectation around him at a remarkably young age.”
