Harry Kane has accused his England teammates of taking advantage of the lack of a long-term manager by pulling out of the squad for this week’s must-win game against Greece.
The England captain launched an attack on his fellow players after eight withdrew on Monday from interim manager Lee Carsley’s group.
Thomas Tuchel does not start as Gareth Southgate’s successor until January and Kane implied players would not have sat out the double header against Greece and Republic of Ireland if the German was in charge.
Kane, who has won 101 caps, argued that England has to come first, while Carsley’s squad now has seven uncapped players and only four who have made more than 20 appearances for their country.
The striker told ITV: “It’s a shame this week, obviously. I think it’s a tough period of the season and, yeah, maybe that’s been taken advantage of that a little bit. I don’t really like it if I’m totally honest. I think, like I just said there, England comes before anything, any club situation.”
Phil Foden, Jack Grealish, Declan Rice, Bukayo Saka, Cole Palmer, Levi Colwill, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Levi Colwill were all named in Carsley’s squad on Thursday but taken out of it on Monday, in some cases after their club managers had said they would not link up with the national team.
Kane believes former manager Gareth Southgate, who resigned after Euro 2024, played a key role in making players keen to represent their country again and hopes that attitude is not lost.
He added: “I think the joy to play for England. I think he brought that back. I think every camp people were excited to come, every camp people wanted to play for England and, yeah, that’s the most important thing.
“I think England comes before anything. England comes before club. England is the most important thing you play as a professional footballer and Gareth was hot on that and he wasn’t afraid to make decisions if, you know, that started to drift from certain players.”