Tottenham Hotspur have announced striker Harry Kane is set for surgery to repair a ruptured tendon in his left hamstring, with the England captain expected to return to training in April.

Kane suffered the injury during the 1-0 Premier League defeat at Southampton on New Year’s Day and specialists advised an operation was needed.

A Tottenham club statement read: “Following ongoing assessment by our medical staff over the past week, we can confirm that Harry Kane will undergo surgery to repair a ruptured tendon in his left hamstring.

“The striker suffered the injury during our Premier League fixture against Southampton last week and specialists have advised surgery after further review of the injury.

“The decision to undergo surgery is not expected to impact the time-frame that the England captain will be sidelined, with the expectation that he will return to training in April.”

The news presented another headache for Spurs boss Jose Mourinho, who has also seen midfielder Moussa Sissoko sidelined until April after undergoing knee surgery.

Spurs also have first-choice goalkeeper Hugo Lloris recovering from injury, along with summer signing Tanguy Ndombele as well as full-back pairing Danny Rose and Ben Davies.

Kane will now also miss England’s friendlies against Italy and Denmark at the end of March.

However, if all goes well in his rehabilitation, Kane should be back in good time to lead the Three Lions into Euro 2020.

n Aston Villa will have to wait to secure the services of Pepe Reina while AC Milan seek to find a replacement, according to the goalkeeper’s agent.

Following the recent season-ending ACL injury to Tom Heaton, and with back-up Jed Steer facing at least another two months out as he recovers from a calf injury, boss Dean Smith has made the recruitment of a goalkeeper one of his priorities this month.

Smith still has a further three international goalkeepers on his books in Norway’s Orjan Nyland, Croatia’s Lovre Kalinic and Matija Sarkic of Montenegro, who was recalled from his loan at Livingston after Heaton’s injury.

Yet Smith is close to luring former Liverpool number one Reina back to England following negotiations with the Rossoneri this week.

The 37-year-old, who spent nine years at Anfield from 2005 to 2014 and made 394 appearances, has featured just once for AC Milan this season, and 13 overall since moving to the San Siro in the summer of 2018.