Allardyce praises Kane withdrawal decision

Speaking to talkSPORT former England manager Sam Allardyce has praised the decision to allow Harry Kane to sit out England’s upcoming friendlies against Germany and Brazil.

Harry is one of six players to pull out of the squad for the Wembley double-header, with Spurs team mate Dele Alli, Liverpool’s Jordan Henderson and Manchester City’s Raheem Sterling among those also missing through injury.

Harry withdrew on Monday after he picked up a knock during Spurs’ win over Crystal Palace having just returned from another injury , however questions were asked about the severity of his injury after Mauricio Pochettino said yesterday that the frontman will be fit for next weekend’s north London derby against Arsenal.

The article adds that Gareth Southgate has dismissed any talks of a club v country row and insists all the absent players have a genuine reason not to play in the glamour ties.

However after playing 18 games in the three months since the new season began, Allardyce believes Kane deserves the time to recuperate.
“He could do with the rest,” the former England manager told the Alan Brazil Sports Breakfast show.

“It will be good for him, it will, honestly. It’ll be good for England in the future and it’ll be good for Tottenham.
“It’s a friendly at the end of the day and there has to be some give and take.

Allardyce added “It’s not being soft [from Southgate for allowing the players to withdraw], it’s a negotiation. As England manager you are negotiating with the Premier Leaguemanagers all the time to try and have a reasonable relationship and to get the players you need.

“Sometimes you might have a manager saying to you, ‘oh he’s got a knock and he can’t make it’…he says to the player, ‘you really could do with missing this and staying with us and making sure you’re 100 per cent when we play again’.
“Harry Kane’s situation is that he’s the main striker for Tottenham and there’s not a lot of back-up and he’s going to play a huge amount of games.

Allardyce had sympathy for Gareth Southgate trying to keep clubs happy especially as it’s just a friendly “So it’s a really difficult position as England manager to try and keep these relationships ok because if they go sour they make things more difficult.
“I don’t know what the situation was, whether they’ve just taken it as read just from the medical report from Tottenham.

“If the medical report says he is unfit to play at this stage in just a few days’ time, then he could be fit for the game Tottenham game when the international break is finished.
“So it could be purely legitimate that it this moment in time he’s not fit enough to play.”

The prestige of playing for England or at any international level has changed and with the money involved at club level they naturally want to protect their investment. It’s something that’s been building for a long time and International football is suffering and will continue to. So what do you think about it, one of the biggest football honours was to represent your country, now it seems to be an inconvenience, is International football dying? Let us know your thoughts

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