Everton: Andros Townsend could miss first half of 22/23 as father updates
Andros Townsend is still far from being close to fit for the 2022-23 season and Everton could be without him for the first half of the campaign.
The 30-year-old was helped off the pitch just 16 minutes into the Toffees’ 4-0 FA Cup quarter-final defeat away at his old club Crystal Palace on 20 March and missed the rest of Everton’s relegation scrap as a result.
Frank Lampard did manage to guide the club to safety with one game to spare but according to Townsend’s father, Troy Townsend, it could be some time before he is back on the field of play.
“He’s away at the moment, he’s back this week,” Townsend Sr. told The Guardian podcast. “It’s now in the process of recuperation, so he doesn’t get much time off and I don’t think he’d want it.
“He needs to get back and make the knee stronger and see where the season will take him, but it definitely won’t be the first half [of next season], I will imagine.
“He’s always said that he’s never been a good patient and that he wants to get back out onto the field of play. I think the reality of this injury is that getting back out onto the field of play is going to be a long, long time away.”
Done
This injury may have prematurely ended Townsend’s time at Everton because the game of football, particularly in the Premier League, waits for nobody.
While he is recovering on the treatment table, the likes of Anthony Gordon and Demarai Gray will be out of the pitch, strutting their stuff and if they start to perform, there will be no place for the 30-year-old to squeeze in.
We also can’t rule out the possibility that Lampard dives into the transfer market to find another winger if the funds become available which would push the England international even further down the pecking order.
It would be a real shame if his last game for the Toffees was that brief quarter of an hour against his former side because he had been much better than that when he first arrived on a free transfer from Selhurst Park under Rafael Benitez.
But if we’re serious about maintaining our top-flight status, then we too need to be ruthless in this situation and be ready to sell Townsend at the earliest opportunity if the right offer arises.
In other Everton news, the club are bracing themselves for a blockbuster offer from a Premier League rival for one of their key players imminently.
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