England facing World Cup nightmare as captain Harry Kane picks up injury

England started their 2022 FIFA World Cup Qatar campaign on a high note with a 6-2 thrashing of Iran in their opening group match. However, they are now facing a nightmare after it has been revealed that captain Harry Kane had to be sent for a scan on his ankle on Tuesday. He remains a doubt for their next group stage match against the United States on Friday.

Kane spent several moments on the ground during Monday's match against Iran after a hard tackle, and what was thought to be a small knock continued to bother him well into Tuesday. Because of this, manager Gareth Southgate decided to send him in for a scan in order to determine the true extent of the injury.

The England squad has not issued a statement on the findings after the scan, and he has not yet been seen back in training. Kane still has some time to recover before Friday, but if he is absent against the USA, it will be clear that the injury is worse than fans would have hoped.

Nevertheless, Southgate has been calm about the situation and told the media that he is not worried. "I think Harry's fine. It looked a bad tackle but he carried on in the game. We took him off really because we felt it was a moment we could do that," he said, as quoted by The Sun.

Southgate also said that he took the opportunity to sub out Kane because there were many players in the forward line who could use the minutes. "We have some fabulous talent and we had players that, if we needed them to change the game, they could do it."

Obviously, with an impressive scoreline to their advantage, England also had the opportunity to experiment a little. However, despite a stellar start, The Three Lions need Kane if they want to go deep into the competition.

He was instrumental in assisting two of the six goals against Iran, and he is expected to be one of the leading scorers for the squad during the World Cup.