Is Kane's workload offset by winter break?
Kane has played 306 games in last five seasons, and on course for 60+ again
Harry Kane has played 306 games in the last five seasons, scoring 218 times, and is on course for another 60+ matches this campaign for club and country (and is already on 26 goals in 20). It is possible to admire the 32-year-old’s remarkable consistency, availability and prolific nature while also feel concerned about the risk of fatigue in a tournament year. Kane looked leggy at the last Euros.
Thomas Tuchel, who takes Kane and company in training at Hotspur Way today, says he is not worried about starting his most irreplaceable player in England’s two dead-rubber World Cup qualifiers over the next week. Kane always wants to play, wants to extend his England goalscoring record currently at 76, and Tuchel understandably wants to look at his 9/10 (positions not rating, yet) partnership with Jude Bellingham.
Tuchel doesn’t fear overplaying Kane and risking him not being fresh at the World Cup. He shrugged off the suggestion when I asked him whether it was worth giving Kane a break this international window. “He has a break in winter,” Tuchel pointed out of the Bundesliga shutdown.
After playing Heidenheim on December 21, Bayern Munich are not in action again until January 11 at home to Wolfsburg. “He’s in a nice position to play in Germany and I think that suits him very well to have this little break, giving where he is in his career,” Tuchel added, “and that’s why he has no excuses for the next two matches.” So he will feature against Serbia at Wembley on Thursday and against Albania in Tirana on Sunday.
Kane could still have as many as 30 games after the winter break, adding to the 30 he will probably have played before Christmas. It’s probably an easier argument to propose that Declan Rice is more in need of a break given the endless, end-to-end work he puts in at Arsenal where he is now their most important player. Rice’s club will be involved in five games while Kane has his feet up.
But Kane is a concern. England have a long history of thoroughbred strikers either pulling up lame before tournaments, limping into them or not being at full throttle during them. Yet for all his troubles at Euro 2016, the 2022 World Cup (nb a winter tournament) and Euro 2024 (where he still finished joint top scorer), Kane remains England’s leading scorer in tournaments, 15 goals in 29 appearances.
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It’s also difficult writing about the potential of fatigue amongst well-paid, well-tended professionals, all healthy young athletes. There’s not a lot of sympathy out there. But the Professional Footballers’ Association regularly warns about the risk of too many games, the brevity of recovery times and the increasing pace of Premier League football. Rice’s team were missing six attackers last weekend: Viktor Gyokeres, Martin Odegaard, Gabriel Martinelli, Noni Madueke, Kai Havertz and Gabriel Jesus.