Jose Mourinho has revealed that he had a conversation with Harry Kane before the FA Cup fifth round tie against Everton and that the striker admitted that he was not ready to start the game.
Kane made a swift recovery from the double ankle injury he picked up against Liverpool a couple of weeks ago, with the England captain returning to the starting line up in Sunday’s clash against West Brom.
The 27-year-old made his presence felt against the Baggies as he scored the home side’s opener and played a key part in Son Heung-min’s goal which made it 2-0.
However, Kane returned to the bench for Tottenham’s trip to Goodison Park, with Mourinho opting to start with a front four of Son, Lamela, Lucas and Bergwijn.
Tottenham’s number 10 came on just minutes after the interval and he scored a late equaliser to make it 4-4 and send the game into extra time.
However, it was the Toffees that prevailed in the end, with Bernard smashing in the winner in the first half of extra time.
When asked why Kane was not named in the starting line up, Mourinho told BT Sport Ultimate (10/1/21) ahead of kick-off (via Evening Standard): “He is the kind of player that you want to play every minute of every match.
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“So for him to be on the bench is because of our conversation. He is an experienced guy, he knows his body better than anyone.
“He wanted to be involved because he knows that we have to try everything to get to the quarter-finals. But not well enough to start a second game in a couple of days.”
Spurs Web Opinion
Even without Kane, some of our link-up play going forward was excellent and it was unfathomable how we were trailing the game at half-time. All of the goals we conceded came about due to individual errors at the back. While Sanchez will get a lot of the blame and deservedly so, Hojbjerg also did not cover himself in glory for a couple of the goals.
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