HARRY'S HEARTBREAK: Kane opens up on true impact of England's World Cup semi-final defeat by Argentina as he urges Three Lions teammates to move on

Harry Kane insists England must put the “hurt” of the last World Cup behind them. Kane admits the pain of losing to Argentina last summer was even worse for him personally than missing the penalty against France in the 2022 quarter final.

Three Lions captain Kane admitted they did not show their “true selves” against Argentina in the semi-final but says they must use that as motivation in the future.

England start their Nations League campaign against world champions Spain at Wembley on Saturday and Kane wants to start a new chapter after the pain in the United States.

Kane said: “You have no choice. You have to move on. I am so passionate about England, especially because I have been on this journey now. I have been to the finals, I have been to semi-finals and been so close.

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“Each one hurts in a different way. This one hurt, for sure. More than any other one. I would probably say even more than when I missed a penalty in Qatar because of the manner that it happened. It was not us as a team.

“It was not the team we wanted to be or said we would be. Sometimes you maybe go against your beliefs and it feels 10 times worse than losing your way when you accept it, take it on the chin and move on. It is tough and it will still be tough.

“But leading up to the next major tournament for example, they are feelings that if you use them in the right way, you can use them to motivate you and you can say ‘I can go one step further’. And that is what we need to try and do.”

The disappointment comes from England having it within their grasp. They were 1-0 up against Argentina, they were on top and yet let it slip in the dying minutes against an ageing team which was not as good as when they won it coup years previously.

But Kane also explained the questions in their minds about where they went wrong and also how they can improve in the longer term.

Kane said: “I think those are the questions that we need to kind of discuss amongst ourselves and answer ourselves, as players and as coaching staff ‘how how can we be better in those moments? How can we be ourselves more in those moments?’

“It's something that we haven't quite been able to do in latter stages of tournaments against the bigger nations and the better nations.

“And it may be a mixture of things - it may be personalities. It may be mentality. It may be just the direction and how we want to play in those games. I think it's conversations that we need to have as as a group and team.”

Incredibly, England will have played the last three world champions in their last three games by the time they finish Saturday’s showdown with Spain.

They lost to Argentina, they beat France in the third place play-off and then face Spain. It is a big test for Thomas Tuchel’s men and Kane says it will also act as part of the “healing process.”

Kane said: “It kind of is. But you have to heal while getting on with it. In life in general, whenever there's like big major events in business or in sport, you have time to process it, you have time to talk about it.

“In football, you don't have that. In football, before you know it's the next one, and now we're focused on Nations League, so it's a hard balance because you're trying to get over it and learn from it, but also we play the world champions on Saturday and it's a big, important game.”

England boss Tuchel welcomed the group back to St George’s Park with a team meeting, every member of staff was also welcomed into the room with a clear message that they cannot let the disappointment of the way the summer ended distract from their progress.

Kane added: “The general messaging is that we continue what we've been building. I think sometimes after a tournament, it's easy to say we start fresh or it's a new start, but I don't think it is that.

“I think it's a continuation, he’s been here for two years. A lot of the squad have been together and at the World Cup, so let's continue what we've done because we have done a lot of good things.

“It’s easier said than done, but if we can get better at that I think we'll show an even better version of ourselves. So that was kind of the general meeting really. We're still going to talk about the summer and talk about good and bad. That will happen naturally over the next year.”

Heartbroken Kane could not bear to watch the World Cup final - even though he was in the same city. He flew from Miami after the third place play-off straight to New York to see his family, play golf and relax after the campaign.

But Kane admitted he did not watch Spain defeat Argentina and made himself busy by hitting the golf course before going on a family holiday.

Kane said: “I didn’t watch it. Funnily enough, I was in New York playing golf, I flew straight to New York straight after the third and fourth play-off, spent a couple of days there, would like to say hiding in New York but New York was the busiest place in the world at that point.

“But to be honest, I have got some friends there, I was out and about and whether it was on the golf course or restaurants, the support and the amount of people that came up to me and said how proud they were of England and me and the team.

“Those are the moments that you start to appreciate everything you have been through. And a lot of Americans as well, the amount of impact it had in America and with their sports as well, although I wasn’t in New York for the reason I wanted to be in New York.

“It was a nice eye-opener of there is stuff to be proud of and you have got to hold your head up high and move on, it was quite a nice couple of days just switching off.”

Kane said the best medicine after the World Cup heartbreak was just enjoying some much-needed family time.

He added: “The first time I saw them, they were so excited to see me. It does bring you straight back to that world. I am playing football with my son out on the grass, going out on the trampolines with my daughters, back to being a dad.

“Sometimes it is hard to make that switch but whoever is in the room who is a dad knows it happens naturally. They are the most important things to get back to enjoying that life.”