Harry Kane spends four to five hours at a time lying on a treatment table while fine needles, hooked up to a small battery, send controlled currents into his body. The technique is called electroacupuncture, and the doctor delivering it, Alejandro Elorriaga Claraco, flies out from Canada for at least a week every month to work on him in Munich.
SPORTbible has laid out the full picture of the routine, describing it as unlike anything in use elsewhere in professional football. Ordinary acupuncture has long been familiar in top-flight dressing rooms. What is unusual is the electrified version, and the sheer volume of hours Kane commits to it.
The Canadian connection
Elorriaga Claraco was born in Madrid and has lived in Canada for decades. He has directed the Contemporary Medical Acupuncture Program at McMaster University in Ontario since 1998 and holds a clinical professorship in its department of anesthesia. His speciality is electrical neurofunctional acupuncture, built up over three decades of work with elite and Olympic athletes.
Kane started seeing him on a recommendation from golfer Justin Rose, after a severe hamstring tear in January 2020 while at Tottenham. The two have worked together since.
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What the method actually does
The sessions use needles placed at acupuncture points and connected to a small stimulation unit. The current activates sensory nerves and produces muscle contractions, with the aim of releasing tension, speeding up recovery between matches, and dampening chronic pain. What sets it apart from the clinic norm is the intensity: hours at a stretch, not the short appointments most people associate with acupuncture.
Acupuncture itself is in use across football. Kane, as far as anyone has reported, is the only player on this adapted, electrified protocol.
The rest of the routine
The treatment sits inside a tight wider regimen. Kane cut sweets out of his diet at the start of last season after noticing he felt sharper and could sprint more without them. He is teetotal during the season. Nutritional specialist Dan Sargeant builds his meal plans down to detail as fine as which parts of an orange he eats. Ice baths, infrared saunas, and a focus on sleep round out the picture.
In 2025/26, the 33-year-old scored 73 goals in 65 appearances for club and country, helped Bayern to a Bundesliga and DFB-Pokal double, and was named 2026 Ballon d’Or winner, the first Englishman to take the award since Michael Owen in 2001.
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The Wembley landmark
Kane equalled Peter Shilton’s England appearance record on his 125th cap last month. He is in line to take sole ownership of it when England host Croatia at Wembley in the UEFA Nations League on Thursday, 12 November, with kick-off at 7:45pm local time.
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