Harry Kane is ‘really, REALLY tired’ after playing every match, says Tottenham boss Antonio Conte
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Harry Kane is ‘really, REALLY tired’ after playing every game so far this season, says Antonio Conte… but Tottenham’s Italian boss STILL started the England captaincy in their 2-0 Carabao Cup defeat to Nottingham Forest
- Harry Kane played an hour of Tottenham’s EFL Cup defeat in Nottingham Forest
- Antonio Conte revealed after the game that his star striker was feeling tired
- However, the Italian claimed he had no other options for starting the Spurs’ attack
Antonio Conte revealed that Harry Kane is suffering from severe fatigue just over a week before flying to England for the World Cup.
Despite his reported fatigue, the Spurs boss still opted to start the striker on Wednesday night in his side’s meek 2-0 surrender at Nottingham Forest in the Carabao Cup.
However, Kane couldn’t avoid falling back to another poor performance before being withdrawn after an hour of the third lap collision at the City Ground.
Harry Kane couldn’t prevent Tottenham losing to Nottingham Forest on Wednesday
However, Conte stuck to his decision to start the England captaincy and insisted he had no other suitable strikers to take his place.
“With Harry we waited until this morning to see if he could start or not,” said the Italian.
“But in this situation he was the only striker for us. For this reason I can only thank for the availability they show me.
The striker was replaced shortly before the hour by manager Antonio Conte
‘It was a problem of fatigue. Really really tired and yesterday we had a gentle workout and at some point he stopped himself to recover energy.
“But he’s okay, it’s just fatigue, but it’s normal, because Harry played every game. When you have a player like him, it’s hard to decide not to play with him.
“Other players might tell me, ‘I’m tired and don’t want to play and help the team.’ So I have a group of players who are men and good players.
“Another may be selfish and think for themselves, because in a week they have to play the World Cup. Instead, Harry Kane showed himself to be a very good man.
“Today it was really hard when Kane told me, “Maybe it’s better I don’t start today because I’m at a lot of risk of getting an injury”.
Kane applauds supporters after Tottenham’s 2-0 defeat on exit from the Carabao Cup
“But I repeat, it’s normal what happens during this period.”
Given Tottenham’s grueling schedule, it’s no surprise they were outplayed by Forest, who lightly took their bottom-line position in the Premier League.
Renan Lodi gave the home side the lead in the 50th minute before Jesse Lingard doubled the advantage seven minutes later. Orel Mangala was sent off with fifteen minutes to go, but the hosts held on comfortably.