How do England survive their worst-case scenario without Harry Kane?

This had been billed as Thomas Tuchel ’s final tune-up of his top stars before World Cup selection. Instead, like against Uruguay , the test of Japan centred around an audition. Please welcome to the stage Phil Foden , playing the role of Harry Kane .

Going purely off his club form , struggling for minutes at Manchester City, there would usually be serious questions over whether Foden will get a seat on Tuchel’s Dallas-bound plane this summer. Tuchel, however, has repeatedly made the point that he sees him as an alternative to his free-scoring captain. He stuck to those words by slipping Foden into a false-nine role upon Kane’s late withdrawal - who became England’s eighth injury casualty this international break.

The FA has led us to believe that Kane’s problem is minor, but what if the next one isn’t? And what if the next one falls between the dates of 11 June and 19 July? Phil Foden was replaced before the hour mark against Japan (Bradley Collyer/PA Wire) It is the worst case scenario for Tuchel.

Kane is probably the only one of England’s “world class” crop who, as of this moment, is playing at peak form and looks like a World Cup winner. And unlike pretty much every other position, there is not an obvious option in reserve. So it wasn’t the worst thing in the world that against Japan, we got to see a glimpse of what Tuchel’s crisis-plan might be should he find himself without the country’s all-time record goalscorer on the biggest stage of them all.