Losing Harry Kane and Harry Winks to injury is a genuine problem for England manager Gareth Southgate

As the England injuries mount up, losing the chance to test two players who will be so crucial to the 2018 World Cup campaign against world class opposition is a major blow

Harry Kane and Harry Winks are unavailable for England against Germany and Brazil (Getty)

Gareth Southgate has been left without his best player, and one of his best prospects, by the withdrawals of Harry Kane and Harry Winks from the England squad.

To make matters worse, Jordan Henderson, Raheem Sterling and Fabian Delph all following in pulling out of the national team squad on Tuesday with injuries, but it’s the Spurs duo that will concern Southgate the most.

The Tottenham pair are both in sparkling form but picked up knocks during Sunday’s 1-0 win over Crystal Palace. Both were scanned at Spurs’ Enfield training base on Monday and last night were withdrawn from the squad for the Germany and Brazil friendlies. Their team-mate Dele Alli will also miss out with hamstring tightness.

Kane’s absence deprives England of their one genuine world-class player, one of their few certain starters and their likely captain in Russia next June. He has 13 goals already for Tottenham so far this season and has carried that form into international duty too, with four in England’s final four World Cup qualifiers: two in Malta and then the only goals in the 1-0s wins over Slovenia and Lithuania.

Kane’s absence naturally diminishes England’s chances of beating Germany and Brazil, but that is not really the point. These are only friendlies and winning is not important. But it will deprive England of the chance to test their playing style against top opposition with their most important player leading the charge. England have other good strikers to play up front: Jamie Vardy, Marcus Rashford and Tammy Abraham. But none of them – unless Kane is injured – will be starting in that role in Russia. At least if Southgate starts Rashford up front, he will have an extra place in the front three for a player like Sterling or Jesse Lingard.

Winks cannot be said to be as important to England as Kane yet, having only made one senior international appearance. But he was England’s man of the match in Lithuania and Southgate spoke very warmly about him when naming his England squad last week. Given the direction Southgate wants to take England in now: more possession, more creativity, better use of the ball in midfield, Winks is absolutely indispensable.

Southgate almost admitted that the midfield pairing of Eric Dier and Jordan Henderson against Slovenia left England short of ideas and clearly Winks is the future in that area of the pitch. He is England’s best passer in the middle of the pitch and an effective argument against rushing Jack Wilshere back into the side when he is not even a regular in the Arsenal team. Winks, still just 21 years old, has started nine games already this season, and his two appearances against Real Madrid made abundantly clear that he is ready for the top level. If he can do it against Real Madrid he can do it in a World Cup.

England are without four players who started the last game against Lithuania (Getty)

But with Winks’ minor ankle injury keeping him out, England do not have their best passer for the new possession football they want to play. That means Dier is likely to continue, although they do have the options of Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Jake Livermore – a willing worker but not of the same class as Winks who was been called up last night. England’s other talented young midfielder, Nathaniel Chalobah, is unfortunately out with a knee injury.

So while Southgate’s England squad for these two games will be full of young talent, or at least as full as it can be, he will be sadly deprived of Kane, Alli and Winks, three of the best and brightest from Spurs. They will have to wait until March, three months before the World Cup, for their next chance to play for Southgate.