Tottenham’s England striker has returned to international duty this week ahead of the Three Lions’ UEFA Nations League bow with the usual vigour - but his showings so far this season indicate he might be better served to spend the week watching it the same way the rest of us will.
Last March, in the middle of his effort at winning the two-horse race with Liverpool’s Mo Salah for the Premier League Golden Boot, the 25-year-old came out second best in coming together with the Bournemouth goalkeeper Asmir Begovic and suffered ligament damage in his ankle. A rushed return to action trying to cling to the Egyptians coattails has, it seems, left a lasting mark on the player.
Kane, the English top flight's top scorer in consecutive seasons before the last, averaged 4.9 shots a game last term, but in a four-game sample since the start of the new campaign, he’s running at just 2.5 a game.
A normally unerring touch that brings his teammates into play so ably has been deserting him at times, too, with his total number of unsuccessful touches of the ball doubling from an average of 1.9 last term to 3.8.
Despite getting over his annual August hump with two goals, those figures indicate that the typically consistent striker is operating at a sub-par level on the front end of the Spurs attack.
A long summer in Russia on international duty won’t have helped his case, either, with suggestions that he suffered a further knock in the exhausting penalty shootout win over Colombia at the last 16 stage being widespread after the game.
Kane hobbled on and claimed the Golden Boot award for the tournament but looked a poor imitation of himself in the semi-final loss to Croatia, in particular.
In this first international break of the new term, the England number nine - or rather one of his staff - posted a message on social media about his glee at returning to the George’s Park grindstone.
“Great being back in the England camp. Time to refocus looking forward, not back,” it read.
But if Kane is to move forward he, and both Mauricio Pochettino and Gareth Southgate, must surely look back at what was a 59-game, 51-goal, injury blighted last season for him, and consider the merits of easing up on his workload to protect an invaluable asset for both club and country in the longer term.
