Every ankle injury Harry Kane has had since 2016 & how long he missed
By Tom Gott
Name a more iconic duo than Harry Kane and ankle injuries. We'll wait.
The Tottenham striker is no stranger to damaging his ankles, so much so that Spurs and England fans end up grimacing whenever he is caught by any challenge. His absences are always sorely felt by both club and country.
Here's a rundown of all Kane's ankle injuries since 2016.
1. September 19, 2016 - 49 days
Kane's first significant ankle injury came in a 1-0 win over Sunderland in September 2016. He scored the game's only goal in the 59th minute, but he left the game late on after damaging his right ankle in a tackle.
The England striker lunged into a challenge with Papy Djilobodji (remember him?) and got his ankle planted in the turf. It turned at an awkward angle and forced him to limp off the field and onto a stretcher.
Kane missed 10 games over 49 days - a run of matches which saw Spurs eliminated from the League Cup and labour to some poor results in the Champions League which left them tumbling into the Europa League.
Dutch striker Vincent Janssen didn't do the business in his absence, forcing Mauricio Pochettino to use Son Heung-min as a striker instead.
2. March 13, 2017 - 24 days
Later that season, a tangle with Millwall's Jake Cooper saw Kane injure the same ankle.
Kane struck the ball before Cooper slid in, and as the Spurs man's foot hit the ground, it was caught under Cooper's body. As he limped off down the tunnel, there were fears he might be out for the same time as the first injury.
Thanks to a well-timed international break, he ended up missing just three matches, all of which resulted in victories.
Son started two of those games, with Janssen handed a start in the second game against Burnley. The Dutchman was poor and replaced by Son in the 73rd minute, and four minutes later, Son found the back of the net.
3. March 12, 2018 - 20 days
Nearly a year after his last injury, Kane had England fans sweating ahead of the 2018 World Cup when he went down holding the same ankle after colliding with Bournemouth goalkeeper Asmir Begovic.
Kane slid the ball past Begovic and into the back of the net, only to see the flag raised for offside, but Spurs had bigger concerns as their star striker could not get back to his feet.
Again, the international break came to the rescue for Kane, whose only game on the sidelines came in a 3-0 win over Swansea in the FA Cup quarter-final.
Fernando Llorente was the backup at this point, but it was still Son who started against the Swans.
4. January 14, 2019 - 40 days
Kane's longest absence since that first injury came in January 2019, when he tore ligaments in his ankle in a 1-0 loss to Manchester United.
A poor challenge by Phil Jones saw Kane go over on his left ankle this time, and it left him sidelined for 40 days and seven matches.
17 minutes into the first game without him, a 2-1 win over Fulham, Llorente bagged an own goal, but he did make up for it in the coming games as he shared the goalscoring duties with Son.
Spurs won five of their seven games without Kane, including a Champions League tie with Borussia Dortmund, but the two they lost saw them dumped out of the League and FA Cup within three days.
5. April 10, 2019 - 51 days
That left ankle was the problem just a few months later when he went down with more ligament damage in a Champions League quarter-final victory over Manchester City.
Fabian Delph cleared the ball ahead of the onrushing Kane, whose ankle was caught by the City man's follow-through. It buckled immediately and left Kane hopping down the tunnel.
His 51-day absence, which saw him miss nine games and the end of the domestic season, was his longest period out to date, but he forced himself back to face Liverpool in the Champions League final.
He started against Jurgen Klopp's side but looked visibly unprepared for the game, which ended in a 2-0 defeat.
6. January 29, 2021 - 7 days
After missing the best part of six months because of a combination of a torn hamstring and the COVID-19 shutdown, Kane's next ankle injury came in January 2021 in a 3-1 loss to Liverpool.
What made this one worse was that Kane actually took nasty knocks to both ankles. Thiago Alcantara trod on his right, before he rolled his left challenging Jordan Henderson for a header.
Fortunately, neither injury was actually that bad and he missed just two games.
A combination of Son, Steven Bergwijn and Carlos Vinicius filled in for Kane, but none could get the job done as Spurs fell to defeat in both their games without their talisman.
7. April 16, 2021 - TBC
Kane was the hero for Spurs as he popped up with two goals to lead his team to a 2-2 draw with Everton in April 2021, but his game ended on a low as he limped off with another ankle injury.
Richarlison went down in the box and inadvertedly fell on Kane's right ankle, which folded under his body and sent him down to the ground.
"I don't know much," said manager Jose Mourinho after the game (via football.london). "I don't have much to say. I don't want to feed any speculation, I don't want to be stupidly optimistic of saying nothing."