John Stones will captain England against Greece, Harry Kane not ready to start

Harry Kane will not start England's Nations League game against Greece and John Stones will captain the team for the first time, interim coach Lee Carsley said on Wednesday.

Kane, who injured his right leg while playing for Bayern Munich at the weekend, has been training separately since arriving at England's training camp and Carsley is unwilling to risk his striker on Thursday with a game against Finland on Sunday.

“Harry has an injury, a little knock, that's something we don't want to risk,” Carsley told reporters.

“We're not ruling him out yet, but he won't be in the starting line-up, hopefully he'll be in contention on Sunday. Time will tell, I don’t think this is something we should rush into.”

While his captain sits on the bench, Carsley has chosen 30-year-old Manchester City defender John Stones to wear the armband.

“It was a great conversation to have with John last night about taking on the responsibility of making him captain of the team,” Carsley said.

“It's a brilliant achievement for John, something he deserves, the number of caps he has, the experience he has, the level of professionalism he shows within the team and the example he sets for them represents younger players.”

Stones was delighted and admitted he was at a loss for words when Carsley told him the news.

“Definitely everything I could have dreamed of as a child, more for my family I think. “Seeing me leave as England captain is a special moment and one I can’t thank Lee enough for,” said Stones.

“As he said, it was a great conversation we had last night and I was a bit speechless.”

Carsley said Jack Grealish suffered a minor knock in training on Tuesday and would be assessed later, but he was not prepared to gamble on his players' fitness.

Chelsea midfielder Cole Palmer has made an excellent start to the season with six goals in seven league games and could return to the side against Greece after missing England's last two games but has plenty of competition.

“Cole is in fantastic shape. I think he carried that through this week. “He’s such an exciting player, a player I’ve worked with for four or five years now,” Carsley said.

“Cole, along with many other offensive players, has created an excellent starting position for tomorrow’s game.”

“I think we have a lot of options to choose from in terms of our attacking players. I think it’s just really important that we try to find that balance.”

“We have two games, lots of opportunities and hope that we can show a real attacking performance tomorrow.”