By Tam McManus

19th Dec, 2022 | 5:14am

Pundit issues Harry Kane claim pre-Tottenham showdown - 'let's hope for his sake...'

Harry Kane may not recover from his World Cup penalty miss when he returns to action with Tottenham over the Christmas period.

That’s according to former Hibernian striker Tam McManus, speaking exclusively to Football Insider about the hitman’s most recent performance.

The 29-year-old scored a penalty and missed one in England’s 2-1 loss to France in the World Cup quarter-finals last week (10 December).

It is understood that Kane was then given a week off and Tottenham have begun the process of throwing a protective veil of support around their star man.

Spurs are next in action against on Boxing Day, when they make the short journey to face Brentford in the Premier League.

McManus claims Kane‘s season could now go one of two ways.

“It’s always going to affect you,” McManus told Football Insider‘s Ben Wild.

“It’s about how you deal with the next one. If he goes and sticks it in the back of the net then nobody will be saying anything.

“You can almost guarantee Tottenham will get a penalty in one of their first games back. Then the nerves kick in because Kane takes them.

“If he buries it then there is no problem. If he misses again then, well, let’s see, you’ve seen it before. But this is all speculative. Kane is a great striker.

“You have to back him to keep scoring for Tottenham, he was in such good form before the tournament and he was actually good at the World Cup.

“He might not have scored as many as he would have liked but he was instrumental in everything England did. It all comes down to that first chance.

“Let’s hope for his sake he scores.”

In other news, Tottenham have a ‘trump card’ in bid to sign world beater in January after source’s update.