BEVERLY HILLS, In a feat of superhuman recovery, the otherworldly entity that is Harry Kane has recovered enough to be greenlighted for a starting XI position against Sam Allardyce’s West Bromwich Albion on Sunday at their Tottenham Hotspur’s Stadium. This is remarkably shocking as the striker needed to be substituted off in pain after injuring both ankles against Liverpool, a little over a week ago.
His injury-forced sidelining sent a worrying chill down the spines of Tottenham fans across the globe. The implications gave them déjà vu all over again. It appeared Spurs were staring down the barrel of another medium-term absence from their top scorer and assist master.
The bleak report of Kane’s condition given by team manager Jose Mourinho worsened the situation even further. Then, everything that could go wrong for Spurs did while Kane was being treated. They were still recovering from the Liverpool loss when they were beaten by Brighton & Hove Albion and completed an uncommon hattrick of losses with a slim 1-0 defeat at home to Chelsea.
Kane must have watched his beloved club being flogged in his absence and decided that enough was enough. No one expected him back so quickly given what was made public of his injury.
THEWILL reported that there were positive feelers about his ankles as they were not as bad as his previous injuries but even the most optimistic fan could not have seen it coming that their talisman will be named in the starting XI against the Baggies in Sunday’s early kick-off.
No one else will be happier to have his marksman back in the starting squad than Mourinho. The attacking options at his disposal since Kane’s bad ankles fell far short of the mark and increasingly disappointed the Portuguese tactician to the point of bringing his management style into question. Carlos Vinicius, brought in to deputise for Kane was no deal and Gareth Bale was a shadow of that striker he once was at Spurs.
Even the typically explosive South Korean Son Heung-min looked very lost in the wilderness of the EPL without his partner in devastating attacking flair. With the dwindling of goal poachers to deliver for Spurs, the prospect of facing Sam Allardyce’s low block and advance-from-defense tactics without Kane gave Spurs fans a new sense of dread.
This dread was heightened when the fact that the fixture against West Brom is a game they cannot dare to lose if they have any intention of keeping their season from spiralling even further beyond their control. The nosedive from three consecutive Premier League defeats, needs to be immediately arrested.
After tasting the top of the table this season, they currently sit ninth, seven clear points off the Champions League places. From where things stand, Spurs is barely in the fight to secure European football of any description next season. Therefore, it is definitely timely that the opposition at this point is West Brom. Yet, as the EPL has always proved, that in no way guarantees them all three points.
That is why Kane’s return is more than a boost, it may be just what turns their season around for the better. Prior to his injury, the striker had 19 goals to his name and had assisted 14 more, most of them for his striking twin Son, in just 29 appearances in 2020/2021. That tally comes to an average of a goal involvement every 66 minutes in all competitions.
That is the kind of involvement Spurs’ season needs at the moment. And it is to their benefit that Kane is back on his feet and running towards the opponents goal. They can only hope he stays fit.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
