Kane named England's World Cup captain

Harry Kane has been made England captain for the 2018 World Cup finals, the Football Association (FA) has confirmed.

Gareth Southgate had previously not named a single captain since his appointment in September 2016  preferring to share the role between the likes of Kane, Gary Cahill, Joe Hart and Jordan Henderson.

The thinking behind that pocily was to promote an environment of shared responsibility, with players taking a leadership role regardless of whether they held the armband or not.

However, with Hart left out of England's World Cup squad and Cahill less than guaranteed a start, the former Middlesbrough manager has plumped for Kane as skipper for the upcoming tournament.

Kane has made 23 appearances for his country so far, scoring 12 goals, and is expected to be one of the first names on the team sheet in Russia.

"Harry has some outstanding personal qualities," said Southgate, who is thought to have informed the rest of the squad of his decision during a team meeting at St George's Park on Monday night.

"He is a meticulous professional and one of the most important things for a captain is that they set the standard every day... I think he is the one who is ready to take that challenge on.

"He has belief and high standards and it is a great message for the team to have a captain who has shown that it is possible to be one of the best in the world over a consistent period of time and that has been his drive.

"My feeling is that over the last 18 months in the camps that he's been with us he has shown that he has got the desire to take that into a team environment and he recognises the importance of bringing others with him."