Lee Carsley explains controversial decision to drop England captain Harry Kane

Harry Kane has been dropped from the England side to play Greece in order to give Ollie Watkins a chance to become a leader.

England interim manager Lee Carsley sprung a surprise by naming his captain on the bench for the must-win Nations League match in Athens on Thursday night. Kane is England’s all-time record goal scorer and is normally the first name on the team sheet for his country.

But Carsley has taken the controversial call to leave him on the bench after Kane questioned some of his team-mates in the build-up to the match. England’s preparation has been marred by the withdrawals of several key players, prompting an irritated response from Kane, whose mood won’t have been improved by being dropped.

But Carsley has stood by his decision in his penultimate game before handing over to Thomas Tuchel and returning to the under-21s. "It was important to give Ollie Watkins an opportunity,” he told ITV.

“To experience a night like this will be great for himself. This team needs to try and create leaders and one way to do that is give them opportunities."

Asked how Kane took the news, Carsley replied: "He is fine. He wants to play but his attitude has been fantastic. I think it is important to give players a chance and I am sure Ollie will do really well tonight."

Aston Villa striker Watkins leads the line alongside Chelsea winger Noni Madueke and Newcastle ’s Anthony Gordon. Carsley’s trust in those he knows from the under-21s set-up is further evidenced by Liverpool midfielder Curtis Jones starting in Greece to make his debut.

Kane had turned heads with his honest comments about England players withdrawing from international duty. "I think England comes before anything. England comes before club," Kane, veteran of 101 caps, told ITV. "England is the most important thing you play as a professional footballer and Gareth [Southgate] was hot on that and he wasn't afraid to make decisions if, you know, that started to drift from certain players."

Asked if the desire to play for England has drifted this international break, Kane said: "Yeah, it's a shame this week obviously. I think it's a tough period of the season, maybe that's been taken advantage of a little bit. I don't really like it if I'm totally honest. I think England comes before anything, any club situation."

Ian Wright was surprised by Kane’s comments. "Going from all that unity in the squad to then, a few withdrawals and then you're hearing [about] the lack of commitment," he said.

"For Harry to say that about the people he's been in the trenches with - two finals, semi-finals of the World Cup, knowing the calibre of the players - to say he's disappointed to see them not coming, especially with the fixtures and [players] going crazy with the amount of games they're having to play, it was a bit of a shock to me to be honest."

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