Kyle Walker is set to captain England in the absence of Harry Kane for tonight's friendly clash with Brazil at Wembley, according to reports.
Kane is set to miss the showdown this evening, while the Bayern Munich star is also expected to be absent when the Three Lions lock horns with Belgium on Tuesday night.
Kane, per The Sun, is expected to fly back to Germany after tonight's game in the capital.
And it's said that Walker is set to be promoted to England captain in Kane's absence, with Jordan Henderson also sidelined at the current moment in time.
Harry Kane is set to miss England's showdown with Brazil at Wembley tonight
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Henderson would normally get the armband. However, the Ajax midfielder, like Kane, wasn't part of the group that trained on Friday.
With Kane missing, England have a dilemma over who will lead their attack against Brazil.
Ollie Watkins is one option, with the Aston Villa star firing his club to the verge of Champions League football.
Watkins has bagged a remarkable 16 league goals so far this term, with only Manchester City hitman Erling Haaland able to better that total.
Another option for England is Ivan Toney, however, who has rediscovered his mojo following his betting ban.
Toney has netted four goals from 10 Premier League outings since returning to the pitch at the start of the year.
And it'll be interesting to see who Southgate goes with as he looks to guide England to victory.
Brazil will be a good test for the Three Lions, especially with the summer's European Championships creeping closer.
And Southgate wants his England stars to rise to the challenge, with the Three Lions winning just four of their 26 matches against Brazil over the years.
“Whenever I’m talking to the team, I’m trying to excite them about the game ahead and challenge them,” Southgate said.
“And also give them confidence in terms of the progress they’ve made as a group.
"We have overcome a lot of hurdles and created quite a bit of history in terms of knocking down some fixtures that have been hurdles over the years.
"I was reading that we’ve only beaten Brazil four times in 26 games so that’s a great challenge for us to put another marker down.”
John Stones was part of the England side that drew with Brazil back in 2017.
And the Manchester City star says the confidence in the camp is higher than ever, with England now a force to be reckoned with.
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Kyle Walker is set to captain England in the absence of Harry Kane against Brazil
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“To some extent, we didn’t realise or believe enough that we were better than them at that point,” he said.
“But I feel now with the players we’ve got and the experiences we’ve had – being in finals, winning trophies, having tough experiences – that we go into this game with the most belief we can come away with a win.
“I just feel a real humbleness that we are confident; we’re not arrogant.
"We are excited and believe we can go and win against the best.
"We spoke for many years now about getting into that elite group or [being] the world’s No 1 team.
England boss Gareth Southgate wants his side to rise to the challenge against Brazil
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"So this is a great test for us. We’ve had the final at the last Euros, the World Cup semi-final in 2018 and we had that real belief in the Qatar World Cup in 2022 [when they reached the quarter-final].
"I feel now it’s time for us to go past that step and get something.”
