(Reuters) – Harry Kane won’t start England’s Nations League game against Greece and John Stones will captain the side for the first time, interim manager Lee Carsley said on Wednesday.
Kane, who injured his right leg while playing for Bayern Munich at the weekend, has been training separately since arriving at the England camp, and Carsley is not willing to risk his striker on Thursday, with a game against Finland to come on Sunday.
“Harry’s nursing an injury, a small knock; it’s something that we won’t take a chance with,” Carsley told reporters.
“We’re not ruling him out just yet, but he won’t start the game, hopefully he’ll be in contention then for Sunday. Time will tell, it’s not something I think we should be rushing.”
With his captain on the bench, Carsley has chosen 30-year-old Manchester City defender John Stones to wear the armband.
“It was a great conversation that I was able to have with John last night, to have that responsibility to ask him to captain the team,” Carsley said.
“It’s a brilliant achievement for John, something that he deserves, the amount of caps he’s got, the experience he’s got, the level of professionalism that he shows within the squad, and the example he is to the younger players.
A delighted Stones admitted that he was lost for words when he was told the news by Carsley.
“Definitely everything that I could have dreamed of as a kid, more for my family I think, to be able to see me walk out as England captain is a special moment and one that I can’t thank Lee enough for,” Stones said.
“As he said, a great conversation that we had last night and one that I was a bit speechless in.”
Carsley said that Jack Grealish picked up a slight knock in Tuesday’s training session and will be assessed later, but he isn’t prepared to gamble on the fitness of any of his players.
Chelsea midfielder Cole Palmer has made an excellent start to the season, with six goals in seven league games, and after missing England’s last two matches, could make a return to the side against Greece but has plenty of competition.
“Cole is in fantastic form; I think he’s carried that into this week, he’s such an exciting player, a player that I’ve worked with for four or five years now,” Carsley said.
“Cole, along with a lot of the other attacking players, have put themselves into a great position to start the game tomorrow.
“I think we’ve got a lot of options to choose from in terms of our attacking players. I think it’s just really important that we try and find that balance.
“We’ve got two games, a lot of options and hopefully, we can get a real attacking performance tomorrow.”
(Reporting by Trevor Stynes; Editing by Toby Davis)
