Kane form could suffer with England captaincy, says Hodgson

Harry Kane's form could suffer if he is made England captain, former Three Lions boss Roy Hodgson has warned.

The Tottenham star is one of the leading candidates to be named permanent successor to Wayne Rooney, who confirmed his retirement from international duty in August.

Kane, who captained his country against Scotland and France in June, has shared duties with Jordan Henderson and Gary Cahill this year and has expressed a desire to take the armband on a full-time basis.

But Hodgson, who managed England from 2012 to 2016, feels the 24-year-old should be left to focus on scoring goals – which he did 13 times for club and country in September – rather than the responsibility of leading Gareth Southgate's team.

"I'd like to see him scoring goals and doing what he does best as a centre-forward," said Crystal Palace boss Hodgson, as quoted by Sky Sports.

"It could be that the captaincy could weigh on him and in some way impact upon that. That will be for Gareth to decide, he'll have to look at those things.

"I think there are a number of potential captains in the team, but one thing is for sure that he [Kane] will play the captains' type role in his position and take responsibility.

"It's up to Gareth to decide if Kane gets the extra responsibility because being captain of England is a large burden in terms of mass media and public relations duties.

"I don't know what Gareth is thinking, but there's no doubt that Kane could be a captain of England, that goes in my opinion for one or two other players as well."

England will qualify for next year's World Cup in Russia if they beat Slovenia at Wembley on Thursday.