OPINION
Ian Wright delivered his verdict on the recent struggles of Tottenham attacker Harry Kane and was spot-on to blame Spurs as well as England for the forward’s issues.
The pundit shared that he thinks the 25-year-old forward always has a tendency to look sluggish upon returning from injury and that it is a result of Spurs and England always using him as soon as he gets close to being 100% fit.
Wright revealed he believes that the need to use Kane as soon as possible is not good for him as the attacker needs rest, and the fact both teams keeping throwing him in as soon as possible, it just sees the same thing happen season after season.
“Yeah I think what has happened with Harry Kane is that he is someone, the emphasis is on getting him back, getting him back and you never know how fit he is when he comes back,” said Wright on talkSPORT (14:35, Monday June 10th).
“He’s normally not as sharp, little bit sluggish and is that simply because for Tottenham and for England, he is someone is soon as he is close, they put him in due to what he can do.
“And I’m not sure that’s good for him, simply because, the guy needs rest, he needs rest, every season he doesn’t get rest, he gets this injury and then he has a long time out, rush back, then bam, and he’s going to do the same thing next season.”
Kane returned to action for Spurs after an ankle injury against Liverpool in the Champions League final, and struggled to have any impact on the game, before featuring for England in their last two Nation League games.
The forward struggled in both outings for Gareth Southgate’s side, with him only showing glimpses of his ability.
Kane played 40 times across all competitions in his 2018/19 campaign and had two separate spells on the sidelines due to injury.
Without Kane, Spurs managed to win six and draw one of the 10 league games he missed, which isn’t the worst record.
Yet despite this, Mauricio Pochettino threw Kane straight back into his starting line-up whenever he got back to being fit enough to feature and it’s hard to imagine him changing this approach next season.
Especially as Spurs don’t seem to agree with Wright that Kane needs a rest as the Daily Mail reported that the forward had been given a gruelling summer fitness schedule.
So with that in mind surely Spurs are doomed to repeat the same mistake when it comes to not letting Kane rest and it’ll be no surprise to see injury cause him to miss several weeks once again in his 2019/20 campaign.