Everton: Ellis Simms learns injury fate after Thursday x-ray result revealed
Everton are now facing a tough decision with striker Ellis Simms’ injury worse than first feared after x-rays results came out on Thursday.
The 21-year-old was forced off during Sunderland’s 3-0 Championship win at Reading earlier in September and has not featured since during his loan spell as the Black Cats waited to find out the extent of his injury.
Manager Tony Mowbray has now come out and revealed that he won’t be available for their next league fixture at the weekend and the ball is now in the court of the Toffees.
“Our diagnosis is that there seems to be some ligament damage on his big toe – it doesn’t look like he’s ready to play for us this weekend,” Mowbray said, as quoted by Chronicle Live.
“We’ll wait and see what Everton want to do and what their assessment is. Ultimately, it will always be the parent club who guides these decisions.
“It’s his big toe, and I know from 20 years of playing that it can be a sore injury and if it’s affecting you running, it’s very difficult.”
Relax
The season is not yet two months old and there are people seemingly panicking that Simms’ loan has to be terminated so he can go through rehabilitation at Finch Farm.
But this isn’t an injury which would rule him out for months on end if there was a chance that he could have played for the Black Cats against Preston North End.
Selection might be a problem for Mowbray with Ross Stewart, his other star striker, also out injured but that isn’t Everton’s issue to deal with.
There is absolutely nothing to be gained by recalling Simms to Merseyside for something that might not be a long-term injury when he needs to play as much as possible this season.
He won’t get that kind of luxury at Goodison Park but he might at the Stadium of Light if Stewart is out for a while too so Frank Lampard has to resist any temptation to bring him back to Everton and let him mature in the North East.