Lee Carsley has insisted he has “absolutely not dropped” Harry Kane and reiterated that the England captain will return to the starting line-up against the Republic of Ireland on Sunday.

Carsley made the brave decision to play Ollie Watkins ahead of Kane for Thursday night’s 3-0 win in Greece, but saw it pay off when the Aston Villa forward scored early on, before England secured the score they needed to secure their hopes of promotion in the Nations League. alive.

But after the match, Carsley sought to reaffirm Kane’s importance to the England team, praising his efforts in recent months and claiming that the Bayern Munich striker had indeed not been “dropped”. His argument was that it was his decision that Watkins would start, and not against Kane.

“I certainly didn’t drop Harry Kane,” Carsley insisted. “He has done well for me, every game he has played and been involved in. It wasn’t a case of dropping, far from it. It was just a matter of giving someone a chance.”

Carsley said on Thursday evening that Kane was “absolutely fine” with his demotion to the bench. But multiple sources familiar with the situation and granted anonymity to protect relationships said so The Athletics that he was unhappy with the decision.

GO DEEPER

Lee Carsley risked it all by leaving out Harry Kane – and England reaped the rewards

Carsley pointed to Watkins’ development and said England would benefit from him playing more big games at international level. “Ollie is playing in the Champions League with Villa, he is doing very well, same with Morgan Rogers. It’s great he got a goal, it seems like a great decision, doesn’t it? Ultimately, he should get a lot of credit and confidence from tonight.”

Kane will return to the squad on Sunday when the Republic of Ireland come to Wembley. If England win that, they will top the group, avoid a play-off, and Carsley will be able to look back on his mini-tenure as a success.

“He plays on Sunday and will start,” Carsley said. “He is captain, he is so important to the team. It was just a matter of looking at something different tonight and giving someone else the experience who hasn’t had many opportunities to do so. Nothing more than that.”

England were lifted on Thursday by Jude Bellingham, who gave one of his best international performances, released into a number 10 role.

He was involved in England’s first two goals and Carsley praised his maturity. “He always plays with responsibility,” the interim manager said of Bellingham.

“I know we only see it during games, but he does it during training, he leads by example, he is a very good person to be around because people want to root for him and compete with him. Tonight I saw that high-level players are joining the selection who are absolutely raising the bar.”

(Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)