Declan Rice has explained why he rejected Harry Kane's attempts to give him the England captain's armband during the win against Ireland on Saturday.

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• Substituted Kane tried to give Rice armband
• Arsenal midfielder refused to take it
• Told striker to give it to Stones instead

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  WHAT HAPPENED?

  Kane was substituted off 84 minutes into his team's 2-0 victory in the Nations League and turned to Rice to take over as the team's captain. However, the midfielder was seen arguing with the striker as he urged him to give it to another player.

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  THE BIGGER PICTURE

  After Rice rebuffed him, Kane gave the armband to Manchester City centre-back John Stones to see out the game as captain, and Rice said he felt the defender deserved the honour due to his seniority in the England fold.

• WHAT RICE SAID

  He explained: "Harry tried to give me the armband but obviously Stonesy is probably more senior and experienced than me. I just said to Harry that John deserves it more than me so I said to give it to John and that was it. It doesn’t need to be made into a bigger thing. I think John is one of the more senior ones and usually he’s captain when Harry doesn’t play so I think it was the right decision."

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  WHAT NEXT FOR RICE?

  The midfielder will hope the Three Lions can build on their winning start to the Nations League campaign when they come up against Finland on Tuesday.

Tags: Futebol
Category: News