Roy Hodgson will pick Wayne Rooney AND Danny Welbeck on Friday evening, rather than hand a debut to Tottenham Hotspur striker Harry Kane, who has scored 29 goals in all competitions so far this season – reports CaughtOffside.
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Rooney, the Three Lions and Manchester United captain, is chasing his country’s all-time goalscoring record, while Arsenal forward Welbeck has scored five times in his last five international games, despite his indifferent recent record for the Gunners.
England face Lithuania in a Euro 2016 qualifier tomorrow, before taking on Italy in a friendly on Tuesday. Kane could appear as a substitute against Lithuania, but will most likely have to wait until the following game to make his debut.
Kane has been widely tipped for a call-up for several months, but it looks as if he’ll have to wait a little longer to make the step up to the first-team. His debut is also unlikely to mean the end of his career with the Under 21s, who he will continue to play with until after the summer.
Speaking about his strikers, Hodgson said: “We’ve been very happy with Harry Kane this week. He’s done well and has done exceptionally well in the league.
“He’s not in any way damaged chances of playing in the senior team and I’m sure over the course of two games we will see him make his debut. We’ll see if that’s from the start, or if it’s coming on as sub.
“If we put him in and he starts and he doesn’t go well, we should have been a bit more solicitous in giving him a bit more time to find his feet.
“If we don’t put him in and it doesn’t go so well we are guilty of not giving a form player his chance so in this situation it is a question which has to be resolved – do I start him in the game or do I perhaps bring him on in the course of the game? Do I start him in the game against Italy? Do I not start him in either game?
“This is my decision – one I have to deal with and whatever decision I make there are people out there who would say I should have done it a different way.”
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