‘A good shock to the system’ – Harry Kane

Venturing out into training has been a long time coming… and even more so for Harry Kane.

Injured at Southampton on New Year’s Day, the season came to an unexpected halt for the England striker much sooner than it did for the rest of the football world, when the outbreak of coronavirus and subsequent national state of lockdown saw the professional game suspended in March.

We haven’t played a game for 11 weeks now but for Harry, that number extends to 21.

Needless to say, having recovered from his hamstring problem in the intervening time, he’s lapping up every second at Hotspur Way as the squad starts to come together once more in preparation for the return of Premier League football.

“It’s been great!” he smiled, reflecting on the phased return to training which this week saw the resumption of group work. “Obviously it’s been an unusual two months or so, having to adapt to the situation but it’s great to be back out here now with the lads, good to just feel that team building, getting back to competing a little more and get the fitness back. It’s been a while since we’ve been able to do some team work, so it’s nice to be able to do that again now.

“For me, I’m good. From a hamstring point of view, it’s been great to be able to give it a little more rest. I’ve not played a game for nearly six months now, it’s been a long, long time. From an injury point of view, I’m back to normal, fully fit. Obviously it will take a while to get back into the team training and feeling that again because I haven’t done that for six months or so, but I’m feeling good, I feel sharp.

“It’s been good to be able to do some individual training – a lot of finishing, individual drills to work on my game and improve – and I feel like I’m at a stage now where I’m looking forward to getting some games and hopefully back playing again before too long.”

It was pointed out to Harry that, for a man who’s relentlessly played and scored at the top level for Club and country over a sustained number of seasons, a period of nearly six months without a game would have been quite a shock to the system.

“I think it’s a good shock to the system!” he replied. “Over the last four or five years it’s been very intense, I’ve picked up a few injuries here and there, and sometimes people think that injuries are a time to rest, but it’s almost a case of when you are injured, you work even harder. It’s the first time I’ve been able to take my time, re-focus, work on some individual stuff and I’ve really enjoyed it. Hopefully I’ll be back in a better place than I was before I was injured.”