Adrian Bevington column: Harry Kane's ankle and World Cup scans

Heavily involved in the initial appointment of Gareth Southgate as England Under-21 boss, this is the second of his exclusive World Cup columns for The Northern Echo.

WHAT a start! Like everyone, I thought it was brilliant to see England fly out of the traps so well against Iran. I thought Gareth got his team selection spot on, and it was just great to see an England side at a major tournament playing with so much attacking intent.

I really liked the flexibility around Harry Kane, with Raheem Sterling looking right back to his best, Bukayo Saka making a massive impact with his two goals and Marcus Rashford also doing well when he came on. I actually thought Rashford’s impact off the bench was significant – he started out wide but was cutting in effectively, and most importantly of all, he looked confident. If he’s playing at the top of his game, he could be a real asset for Gareth later in the tournament.

Marcus Rashford scores in England's 6-2 win over Iran (Image: PA)

There were so many positives in the attacking third, and it was great to get off to such a positive start. The only thing I would say is that I agree with Gareth that it was slightly disappointing to concede two goals and look a bit open at the back in the closing stages. Having watched France against Australia the following night, if we were to come up against someone like a France later in the competition, we’d have to defend a lot better than that.

That said though, it was a fantastic start, and it’ll just have cemented the positive mood around the camp and the team hotel. Listening to some of the interviews and seeing some of the players in and around training, the tournament I was involved in that I’d most liken it to so far is the 2004 Euros in Portugal. That might sound strange because we lost our opening game there, but we played so well against France, only losing to two goals in injury time after missing a penalty, that the performance still gave the players so much confidence that they were then able to take into the games against Switzerland and Croatia.

I’ve been in other tournaments where we’ve won the first game, but not necessarily played very well. I know people will say tournament football is all about winning, but players know when they’re playing well or when they’re not. That mood can be so important in a camp environment like the players will be experiencing in Qatar.

THERE’S obviously been a scare in the wake of the Iran win over Harry Kane’s ankle, although the news in the last 24 hours has thankfully been a bit more positive.

We all know Harry’s history in terms of ankle injuries, and as we talked about in the first column, we also know England are a bit light in term of natural centre-forward options in the squad. So, it’s understandable there was a worry when the news came out about the scan.

Harry Kane suffered a knock to his ankle against Iran (Image: PA)

The only thing I would say from my own experience is that it’s really not unusual for players to have scans during tournaments. I can think of at least one or two big-name players that had way more scans than you would ever imagine while they were away at tournaments. Sometimes, you were talking one or two a week.

Often, it’s more about reassurance than anything – the player or manager want to know exactly what they’re dealing with if there is a little bit of pain or a niggle. Sometimes that news gets into the press, sometimes it doesn’t. But it’s certainly not uncommon.

It gives Gareth something to think about in terms of his selection for the next two group games, but in general, I’ve always been of the opinion that it’s not really helpful to do too much chopping and changing once a tournament is under way. I’ve generally found the most successful teams tend to keep things fairly stable as they negotiate their way through the various rounds.

THE build-up to the Iran game was dominated by the issue over the rainbow armband – and it’s obviously not just England that become embroiled in the situation.

I have a lot of sympathy for the FA here. They were in a really difficult position, and it must have been difficult for the people tasked with making the decisions and conveying them on the ground.

I fully understand the view that the FA should have stuck to their guns and made Harry Kane wear the rainbow armband, even if meant he started the game with a booking, but we don’t actually know that was as far as it was going to go. FIFA were just talking about ‘sporting sanctions’ so what if that meant he got a booking before kick-off, then would get another booking if he carried on wearing it during the game?

The rainbow armband has become a major political issue in Qatar (Image: PA)

I think the FA, along with Gareth and the rest of the squad, have been really strong in terms of their messaging over inclusivity and equality over the last few years. I don’t think you can accuse them of not standing by what they believe in because I think they’ve tried to do that at every turn. I just think, on this occasion, they found themselves in a position where they had to weigh up a lot of different factors.

I EXPECT the armband issue would have been discussed at the morning meeting before the game. When you’re at a major tournament, there’s a big meeting on the morning of every match at which a host of different issues are discussed.

Two or three key members of each national delegation will attend – you’d definitely have your team administration lead person, your head of security and a senior media official – and they’ll meet with representatives from FIFA, the match officials, and officials from the local police and security.

You talk about all sorts – getting to the stadium, the logistics in the ground, pre and post-match arrangements, and also the kit, which is where I’d imagine the armband situation would have been raised.

The kit thing is bizarre because, even though you get all your kit officially signed off way in advance of the tournament, you still have to bring your kit – shirt, shorts and socks and goalkeeper shirt, shorts and socks  - and they have to be okayed by the officials, which isn’t always straightforward.

I remember in 2004, we had a real issue with David James’ goalkeeping kit. It had all been signed off, but for whatever reason, on the day of the games, the officials really weren’t happy with it.

If you look back at the games, there’s at least one where David is wearing an all-black goalkeeping shirt. That was a training shirt that we had to adapt into a matchday top on the day of the game. I remember we were flying around trying to get the badge sewn on and the various tournament logos printed onto the shirt so David could wear it. It just shows that even when you think you’ve done the best preparation in the world, something unexpected can still be thrown in your direction.