Injured Kane to miss Wales friendly – who is his long-term back-up?

England captain Harry Kane will miss Thursday’s friendly against Wales with a minor injury.

The 32-year-old missed training after taking a kick to his ankle during Bayern Munich’s 3-0 win over Eintracht Frankfurt on Saturday.

England hope their record goalscorer will be fit to face Latvia in a World Cup qualifier next Tuesday.

Manager Thomas Tuchel said: “Harry will miss the game, he got a kick in his last match and it is too painful to kick the ball and too risky for him.

“We give him the chance for it calm down and we are convinced he will be ready for Latvia.”

Tuchel confirmed that one of Jordan Henderson, John Stones or Declan Rice will be captain at Wembley in Kane’s absence.

England have not played Wales since a 3-0 win at the World Cup in 2022 and Tuchel is expecting a tough test.

“Hopefully it will be emotional and loud and have the character of a derby,” Tuchel said.

“I can imagine what Craig Bellamy tells his players, I think they want to make the most out of their role as an underdog.

With Thursday night’s game a friendly and World Cup qualification looking likely, Kane’s injury is not a major issue for Tuchel.

But England’s reliance on Kane is obvious. The captain has scored a record 74 goals in his 109 caps, with the rest of the current squad scoring 53 between them.

Kane has scored 26.4% of all England goals since his debut in 2015, with Raheem Sterling – last capped during the 2022 World Cup – the only other player to score 20 goals in that time.

In Tuchel’s squad the most obvious candidate to step up on Thursday is Aston Villa’s Ollie Watkins, who regularly replaced Kane from the bench during last summer’s Euros, memorably scoring the winner against the Netherlands in the semi-finals.

Watkins has scored five goals for England in 19 caps but has only scored once for Villa this season.

Marcus Rashford is another option. The Manchester United forward is on loan at Barcelona and prefers to play from the left – but has played plenty of matches in the middle.

He has 18 goals for England – the most after Kane in the current squad.

Anthony Gordon has played in a central role for Newcastle and starred in that position for the England Under-21s when they won the Euros in 2023, but he has just one goal in 14 caps.

Outside of Tuchel’s current squad, Ivan Toney played against Senegal in June and is available but playing in Saudi Arabia, while Tottenham’s Dominic Solanke is injured and has only won three caps.

Chelsea signed Liam Delap this summer after an impressive season with Ipswich, but the 22-year-old is out with a hamstring injury and is yet to be called up to the senior squad.