Rafa Benitez delivers promising early Everton injury update ahead of Burnley clash
Everton manager Rafa Benitez has given an early injury update ahead of the club’s Boxing Day fixture against Burnley.
Demarai Gray, Salomon Rondon, Fabian Delph, Richarlison and Andros Townsend were all absent through injury or illness for the 1-1 draw at Chelsea on Thursday (16 December), with Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Tom Davies and Yerry Mina already sidelined.
The Toffees’ home game against Leicester City this weekend has been postponed due to a Covid outbreak in the Foxes squad, so they will not be in action again until 26 December at Turf Moor.
Speaking to Everton’s official website today (18 December), Benitez revealed his hope that some players would return from the sidelines for the fixture.
“The first thing is to control the virus everywhere,” he said. “We will take all the measure we need to ensure we protect as many people as we can, then we will continue training and we will have some time to work.
“Hopefully we can bring some players back – Dominic [Calvert-Lewin] is closer, we will see if Tom Davies is also closer and we have some time to recover Seamus [Coleman] and Allan.
“Hopefully it will be a good time for us.
“Still, we will be missing players but at least some of them will come back and they can give us more competition.”
Encouraging
The game against Leicester being postponed this weekend could prove to be a blessing in disguise as it will allow for players to be back available again by Boxing Day.
That said, they were not a huge miss against Chelsea on Thursday as the team earned a hard-fought 1-1 draw at Stamford Bridge.
Jarrad Branthwaite came in for his first Premier League start of the season and capped an impressive performance with only his second senior goal, while Ellis Simms and Lewis Dobbin both worked hard and were promising in attack.
Of course the news that Dominic Calvert-Lewin is on the verge of a return is bound to excite fans as he has been a huge miss over the last few months.
The England international scored in each of the first three Premier League matches of the campaign but has not featured since due to a quadriceps injury.
In other Everton news, a Toffees flop has criticised the standard of training sessions on Merseyside.
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