LONDON -- Mauricio Pochettino abandoned plans to name Harry Kane on the bench for Sunday's 2-0 FA Cup win over Aston Villa after the striker spent a sleepless night while his girlfriend was in childbirth.
Kane became a father for the first time on Sunday morning and was unable to feature in the third-round win after spending most of the day catching up on sleep.
Me and @KateGoodlandx had our beautiful baby girl this morning, Ivy Jane Kane at 7:30am. Weighing 7.8pounds. Amazing feeling, so proud!��❤����
- Harry Kane (@HKane) January 8, 2017
Pochettino made nine changes from Wednesday's win over Chelsea, with only Toby Alderweireld and Eric Dier keeping their places, and he revealed he had initially planned for Kane to join Dele Alli on the bench.
"After a 2-0 win, it is better to explain now [the situation]. I want to send a big, big heart from here to Kate, his wife. It was a difficult night for her but now it's OK and they have a beautiful girl," Pochettino told a postmatch news conference.
"Harry was more tired than his wife and we sent him to sleep. He spent all night at the hospital waiting and at 7:30 a.m. the baby was born. The plan was for him to be on the bench."
In Kane's absence, £17 million summer signing Vincent Janssen, still without a goal from open play for Tottenham, led the line but the Netherlands international struggled to make an impact and was replaced by Alli on the hour.
"It is true [that he struggled] but look again at the game we played against Chelsea, both the strikers struggled in the first half -- [Diego] Costa and Harry Kane," Pochettino said.
"In the second half he started to find better space to play but we decided to put Alli on. It was tough but not only for him. He needs to work hard and not be frustrated."
The introductions of Alli and Georges-Kevin Nkoudou from the bench helped bring Tottenham to life and the latter crossed for Ben Davies to break the deadlock with a fine header -- his first goal for the club -- before Moussa Sissoko set-up Son Heung-Min for the second.
"It was a very tough game -- the first half was difficult for us. It is true that we had the ball and possession but it was difficult to find space and create chances," Pochettino said.
"The second half was better, we started to be more aggressive in our offensive positions. I am very pleased because the FA Cup always puts you in a difficult situation -- the FA Cup doesn't understand about [your] level, whether you come from the Premier League or League One.
"It was a solid performance with many players who do not play very often. It was a good opportunity for them to show their quality. The two goals arrived at a very crucial moment for us, after we changed [to a] back four and put one extra offensive player on.
"It is true that Aston Villa deserve credit for stopping us creating chances, they played [on the] counter-attack and it was tough for us but we had very good ideas."