For twenty minutes in Prague, Thomas Tuchel let England try the answer. Kane was off the pitch, Jude Bellingham had been pushed up to centre-forward, and the Three Lions played out their 2-0 win over Czech Republic with a Real Madrid midfielder as the furthest man forward. Afterwards the England head coach put the long-term problem on the record.

“You will not get another Harry Kane, first of all. We look for different options and solutions. There will be someone else, but it will not be Harry or a copy of Harry,” Tuchel told reporters.

Kane is 33, still the first-choice striker at Bayern Munich, and his existing contract in Munich runs to the end of the 2026-27 season while talks over an extension continue.

His 69th-minute finish in Prague took him to 87 goals in 123 England appearances.

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Tuchel’s praise for the captain went past the finishing.

“He is the first one to push everyone and that is his mindset and he became a very, very hardworking forward on top of his finishing skills. He is a complete package,” the German said.

The head coach also pushed the search for a successor into the distance.

“We will find a solution when it comes to it, but maybe not me. It might be another 10 years,” he said.

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Bellingham tried as the number nine

The late shuffle in Prague was not a throwaway idea. Tuchel sees a case for giving Bellingham the shirt rather than hunting for a traditional centre-forward who happens to be English.

“I like him as a nine. Then he can contribute to both sides and overload the sides and doesn’t affect so much of the balance,” he said.

The qualification matters. Bellingham-as-nine is a different model from Kane, not a replacement for him. Kane holds the ball, drops into midfield to link, and finishes. Bellingham, by Tuchel’s logic, would run beyond the last line and bring team-mates into the half-space. Dominic Calvert-Lewin remains the nearest like-for-like English No. 9, but no striker in the current pool combines Kane’s finishing and his link play.

Bellingham picks up a knock

Bellingham wore the armband after Kane was substituted and did not come through the final minutes untouched.

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“He had a little niggle at the end of the match. Hopefully it is nothing serious and he is available for Croatia,” Tuchel said.

The win in Prague was built on a first-half Czech Republic red card for Pavel Sulc, following a VAR review for a studs-up challenge on Elliot Anderson, and sealed by Anthony Gordon’s 47th-minute header and Kane’s 69th-minute finish.

England travel to Rijeka to face Croatia on Saturday, 3 October.

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