Gareth Southgate says it would be a "brave decision" not to start Harry Kane against USA

Kane suffered a knock after a clumsy challenge by Morteza Pouraliganji in England’s 6-2 win against Iran on Monday – the national team’s biggest ever win at the start of a major tournament.

The Spurs striker, who has a history of ankle problems, did play on for 25 minutes but was seen limping after the game and went for a precautionary scan.

However, Kane has returned to training without issue and Southgate suggested his captain will feature from the start on Friday.

“Harry’s good,” he said. “He came through training, no problems, so it would be a brave decision to leave him out of the starting team.”

Southgate warned he expects a different level of opposition from the Americans after England enjoyed a relatively easy opener against Iran.

“I think tomorrow’s game will be very different to the first match,” added Southgate.

“They are a team that press the ball really well and who have, with respect, probably a level of player that has more experience of playing in top-level European leagues.

“In terms of tomorrow’s game, it’s not going to be the pattern of the previous one.”

Southgate insisted he would not be getting carried away following Monday’s convincing victory.

“We’re good at talking highly of ourselves as a nation and on the basis of very little evidence,” he added.

“We know we’ll be playing a highly motivated team, but we’ve got huge respect for our opponents, we know a lot of them from our league and we know the quality and athleticism they have.

“The risk for us is that we think because we played well the other day we can just go through to the next game.

“We’ve got to find that reset button to have the same psychology and determination.”

Southgate, meanwhile, has not ruled out his England team making a gesture to highlight human rights concerns but says they will not be pressured into doing so.

The German team covered their mouths for the team photo before their opening World Cup match against Japan on Wednesday, while the Australia squad released a video highlighting issues in the host country.

Seven European nations competing at the World Cup – including Germany, England and Wales – planned to wear OneLove anti-discrimination armbands during the tournament, but were dissuaded from doing so following the threat of sporting sanctions from FIFA.

Southgate said: “I don’t think we should feel any pressure – I think we’ve spoken on these particular topics for over a year and we’ve supported all manner of good causes either as individuals or the collective.

“I think there’s a risk that everybody tries to escalate – if we tried to do a better video than Australia did, that would be impossible; whether we try to come up with a better gesture than Germany.

“That’s not to say we won’t do anything moving forward if the timing’s right, but I think we are rushing to be seen to be doing something, we could make an error that doesn’t land well.”