Tottenham Hotspur would struggle to replace Kane

Soccer Football - UEFA Nations League Semi Final - England Training - St. George's Park, Burton upon Trent, Britain - June 5, 2019 England's Harry Kane during training Action Images via Reuters/Jason Cairnduff

Tottenham Hotspur would struggle to replace captain Harry Kane if he leaves the Premier League club at the end of the season, teammate Lucas Moura has said.

Kane is contracted to Spurs until 2024 but said during an Instagram Live session with Sky Sports pundit Jamie Redknapp last month that he could leave if he felt the London club were not moving in the right direction.

Kane, who also captains England, is Spurs' third-highest scorer of all time but has yet to win a trophy with his boyhood club.

"I'm sure that every season Tottenham receive offers for Kane. I want him to stay because he's very important for us and it's not easy to find a player like him," Brazilian forward Moura said.

"Everyone knows he's a big player."

Kane, who scored 11 league goals in 20 appearances this season, was recovering from hamstring surgery when football in England was suspended indefinitely due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Tottenham were eighth before the game's suspension, seven points adrift of fourth place and qualification for next season's Champions League.

Moura said Kane would be central to manager Jose Mourinho's plans.

"I'm sure that Mourinho wants to keep him. He counts on him for the rest of the season as well as for the next one," he said. 

Meanwhile, the Belarusian Football Federation said on Wednesday it was postponing the start of its women's Premier League after several players were found to have been in contact with possible carriers of the novel coronavirus.

Belarus is the only country in Europe still playing a men's national soccer league, making it an unlikely draw for fans overseas where matches have been cancelled.

The federation said the Belarusian Women's Premier League, which had been set to kick off on Thursday, would not open its 2020 season until further notice.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, in power since 1994, has been publicly sceptical about the need for strong action to curb the spread of the coronavirus.

This week he said that nobody would die from the coronavirus in Belarus and again rejected the need for the strict lockdown measures adopted by most countries to contain the spread of the pandemic. [Reuters]