Wait for the ‘Harry Kane is not that type of player’ brigade to come out in force now.
Harry Kane shouldn’t have been on the pitch when the final whistle blew to put Tottenham Hotspur out of their misery against Manchester City on Saturday evening.
The game finished 4-1 in favour of the Premier League leaders, but the most important number here is 22. Remarkably, that’s the number of players who were still on the field at the end of it. Nicolas Otamendi put his boot in Kane’s face, Dele Alli clamped down on Kevin De Bruyne’s ankle and Kane nearly snapped Raheem Sterling’s leg in two.
Yet still, no red card was shown in the match.
Kane should have been off on the 52 minute mark. The incident started with Ederson punching a Christian Eriksen cross back out into play.
The ball went loose, with Sterling and Kane the closest players to where it was going to land. It looked destined to fall at Sterling’s feet, but Kane gave chase with his eyes on the prize.
Once Kane neared his target, the studs came up. His eyes were on the ball, his momentum meant stopping at this point would have been impossible, but he recklessly went in high with the boot.
Then a connection was made.
Surprise, surprise, it wasn’t instep on ball, but rather stud on shin. Kane missed his mark, but caught Sterling with a foul that could have snapped his leg in two.
Unsurprisingly, Sterling fell to the ground in agony. He felt that one. He couldn’t help but feel it and it clearly hurt.
The referee decided to flash the yellow card and the game continued.
Shocking decision.
