Harry Kane will continue to build his fitness up after Tottenham began their season without him in style by beating Manchester City.

Kane was absent as Son Heung-min’s second-half goal sealed a 1-0 win against the defending champions, who want to sign the England captain this summer.

He also wants to join them and was not selected on Sunday following his late return from his holiday which was seen as an act of defiance in his bid to leave the club this summer.

The 28-year-old only had two training sessions with the squad as a result of a period of self-isolation and trained separately on Sunday morning.

He will continue to work on his fitness ahead of the trip to Wolves next Sunday, but it remains to be seen whether he will be involved again.

Manager Nuno Espirito Santo said: “Harry, like (new signings) Bryan (Gil), Cristian Romero, they joined us later.

“For Cristian and Bryan it was very important to be here today. To feel the atmosphere and be in the stadium and be in the hotel, attending the meeting, but knowing they don’t have too many sessions with us.

“Harry worked this morning, he is preparing himself and when he is ready he will join the group and help the team.”

City may well up the ante in their pursuit of Kane now their trip to north London – a clear obstacle in any possible deal – is out of the way.

They have yet to get anywhere near the £150million figure that will be needed to even get Spurs to the negotiating table while the looming transfer deadline is another issue in the saga.

Pep Guardiola, who has publicly declared his interest in Kane, was quizzed on whether he needed a striker after the loss at Spurs where his side missed several chances but remained guarded.

“We are the same people as last season, Sergio (Aguero) has gone unfortunately but we only had him for seven games,” he said.

“We are the same people. We won the Premier League and we made very good things. It is a tough rival, we did everything to win.

“It is the same people as last season and we scored loads of goals. It has happened, we were there, we arrived many times and today we could not score and it is the same mystery. We are good enough to score a goal.”