Tottenham duo Matt Doherty and Dejan Kulusevski have revealed that Harry Kane surprised them at half-time in Wednesday evening's friendly match against Nice. Leading 1-0 at the break courtesy of the wing-back's strike after the Swede had teed him up, the players headed back inside and were met by Spurs' No.10.
Missing a crucial penalty in England's World Cup quarter-final defeat against France, Kane has had a short break since the Three Lions' campaign came to an end against Les Bleus. Now back in N17 and getting ready for the Boxing Day clash at Brentford, both Doherty and Kulusevski, who hugged their teammate upon his return to the Spurs dressing room, have admitted that it was a welcome surprise to see the striker once again as his appearance was unexpected.
“He came in at half-time. It was unexpected. We didn’t know. We’re obviously close friends. It was good to have him back," explained Doherty.
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Kulusevski added: "Yeah, like I was surprised he came today. I thought he was coming back like Friday so it was good to see him back in the game now."
Kane's penalty miss will undoubtedly still be playing on his mind but his fellow attacker did admit that the striker was in good spirits in the changing room.
"Yeah absolutely. He has a nice break, you know and it was very good to see him. I can't wait to play with him," admitted the 22-year-old.
Tottenham's No.10 will be raring to go at Brentford as he looks to try and put his penalty heartache to the back of his mind. Kulusevski has no doubts at all about Kane appearing in the Tottenham starting XI in the lunchtime kick-off in west London.
"I honestly think that every player would like to play, because when you're there and you see your team-mates play. Even today I think it hurts," he said.
"Always you want to be on the pitch, you want to help your team so I think he wants to play absolutely."
Doherty is extremely confident that Kane will be on song when he returns to the pitch and can use his negative experience as motivation as Tottenham look to finish the season strongly.
“Let’s see. I think all players use the negative times as a learning curve as a way to motivate them to be better," said Doherty. “I don’t think it will be just for his case, I think a lot of people will be that way.
“For us, we want him to come back and be the best version of himself which he has been for most of the season so far. I don’t think we’ve got any questions about how he’s going to return. I think he’s going to come back pretty good and I think he’s going to score a lot of goals for us and win us a lot of games."
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