DOHA – England manager Gareth Southgate said his captain Harry Kane is fit to face Wales on Tuesday despite feeling discomfort in his right foot during England’s 0-0 draw against the United States last Friday.

The 29-year-old also suffered a knock to his right ankle after a tackle by Iran’s Morteza Pouraliganji early in the second half of England’s 6-2 opening win in Group B and was replaced late on.

But Southgate, who has previously said it would take a brave manager to leave Kane out of the team, assuaged fears over his star striker, telling a press conference on Monday: “Harry’s fine in terms of the knock he had, everybody keeps saying it’s his ankle but it’s his foot.

“At this point, we’ve got pretty much everyone available to select from which is a great position to be in. It makes decisions difficult of course, but what you want is a fully fit squad...

“We have 26 players, but we have a major tournament. It is not about giving caps out... In a World Cup, you can’t be thinking that way. We have got to balance freshness with stability so that is always the decision we are making when picking the team.”

Former England captain Tony Adams flagged his concerns about skipper Kane, who was the top scorer at the last World Cup in Russia.

He wrote in his column for The Sun: “Honestly, if I was a defender at this World Cup I would absolutely love playing against Harry Kane.

“He doesn’t get in behind the defence and he doesn’t face you up. He’s a link player who is going deeper and deeper to get the ball...

“There are no crosses coming in for Kane where he can be dangerous.... He is obviously one of the best strikers in the world, you only have to look at his numbers, but if I was a centre-back up against him in Qatar, I’d have a cigar on.”

He added: “What I always feared was forwards with pace who could get in the spaces behind and force me to chase them.”

“That scared the living daylights out of me, I hated it, but Kane doesn’t do that. And if he was running at me I’d be able to deal with that because he’s not going to have the pace to get round me.”

England’s all-time top scorer Wayne Rooney and fellow former international Joe Cole have also called for Southgate to leave out Kane for Callum Wilson and Marcus Rashford respectively. But they both agreed with the public clamour for Phil Foden to start after a poor England performance against the US.

But England forward Marcus Rashford said criticism of the team is unjustified and that fans should withhold judgment until after their final group game against Wales.

“When you win a game, you are the best team in the world. When you lose, you are the worst. That’s football. As players, you have to keep a balance,” Rashford, 25, told reporters.

“If we play well in the next game, that USA game will be forgotten. It’s not a nice feeling. But to be honest we don’t need fans to boo us to know we have not played well.

“It was a feeling that was mutual amongst the group – that we could have done better. When you don’t win it’s disappointing but we can’t be so negative about it. It’s not often teams win all three games. If we can beat Wales then it will considered a good start.”

That sentiment was echoed by fellow attacker Jack Grealish.

He told talkSPORT: “It’s weird sometimes playing for the national team because you have one result like that and it’s as if it is the end of the world – and it’s clearly not.

“I felt like a lot of it was about us. England were this, England were that but at the end of the day, they played very well... and we have to give them credit...

“We know we can play better and we will certainly looking to be doing that going into the second game.

“I think there was a big overreaction. Apart from Spain being the top tournament scorers, we’re the top scorers in the tournament. I can’t think off the top of my head if anyone has scored more than six.”

Meanwhile, Wales captain Gareth Bale said his team needed to give everything they had to beat England, having been “devastated and heartbroken” after their 2-0 defeat by Iran last Friday, which came after two injury-time strikes.

“At this current moment, we’re not in the greatest of positions, we’ve not had an amazing tournament,” the 33-year-old Los Angeles FC forward told a press conference on Monday.

“You’ve seen our reaction, when we conceded against Iran, how devastated we all were, lying on the floor, heartbroken.”

His coach Rob Page, meanwhile, said that England were “beatable”.

He said: “Disappointment for the players is that we’ve shown nowhere near the level of performance that got us to this World Cup...

“This tournament has shown every team is beatable, so of course England are beatable.” REUTERS, AFP

GROUP B PERMUTATIONS

> England need just a draw against Wales to qualify for the last 16. They might still go through with a defeat, depending on goal difference and the result of the Iran-US game.

> Iran will go through if they beat the US. A draw will also be enough if Wales fail to beat England.

> Wales must win and hope for a draw between the US and Iran. If either US or Iran win, then Wales must beat England by at least four goals.

> For the US, it’s win or bust.