Home England Premier League Dier urges Tottenham teammates to rise to the occasion in Kane’s absence

Dier urges Tottenham teammates to rise to the occasion in Kane’s absence

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Dier urges Tottenham teammates to rise to the occasion in Kane’s absence

Eric Dier returned to action as a substitute in Tottenham’s 2-1 victory over Fulham on Sunday after a month’s absence following his appendix surgery and the England international has urged his teammates to rise to the occasion to cover for the loss of Harry Kane and possibly, Dele Alli.

Kane has been ruled out with an ankle injury until March while Heung-min Son is away on international duty to represent South Korea at the AFC Asian Cup.

Dele Alli suffered a hamstring injury in the 2-1 win but the actual extent of his injury will be confirmed by the reports of the scan which are about to come shortly.

Tottenham are set to face Chelsea in the second leg of the Carabao Cup semi-final, having won the first leg 1-0 courtesy of Harry Kane’s VAR-approved penalty and Dier has called upon his teammates to fill the injured striker’s void.

Dier added: “It’s not a question of if we can cope without Harry or not. Harry’s one of the best strikers in the world, any team would feel the loss if Harry wasn’t playing, so we have to find a solution and move on.

“Injuries happen in football and that’s why you have a squad and not just 11 players.

“It was a good start (to life without him). People are going to be talking about it when he’s injured but we’ve just got to get on with it.

“Harry will be doing his best to get back as soon as possible and it’s down to the team and the squad to rally and carry on.

“Fernando’s a very good player. He has very good qualities. We need to give him the service he needs to demonstrate his qualities. We can do that and he can (also) help the team.”

England manager Gareth Southgate is planning to speak to Kane this week and he expects the striker to be back ahead of schedule, with England set to face the Czech Republic and Montenegro in Euro 2020 qualifiers on March 22 and 25 respectively.

Southgate, speaking to the Football Writers’ Association, said: “It’s a disappointment for any player to miss matches and Harry especially wants to be available for every game and have the opportunity to score in every game.

“Knowing his mindset there’ll be a calendar on the wall and he’ll be making sure he gets back ahead of where people are predicting he can be back.

“The break won’t do him any harm, he’ll be fresh for it, he’ll be back to form for Tottenham and hopefully before out games in March.”

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