Early Leicester team news v Everton: Jonny Evans among trio of doubts for Brendan Rodgers
Leicester City are sweating on the fitness of defender Jonny Evans ahead of their Premier League clash against Everton on Saturday.
The Foxes are without Ricardo Pereira and Ryan Bertrand ahead of the trip to Merseyside, who are both sidelined with long-term injuries.
Evans was potentially set to return for the fixture, but Brendan Rodgers is still uncertain over whether the 34-year-old defender will be able to feature at Goodison Park.
Talking in his pre-match press conference [quoted by Liverpool World, 3 November], he said: “We’ll decide on that tomorrow [Friday] whether he’s going to be ready to have an impact or whether it’s going to be Tuesday.
“It’s been a bit slower than what he would have hoped but he was out training with the squad today, so we just need to evaluate the risk on that and then take it from there.”
Must perform
It’s crucial the Toffees turn up and replicate their high-performance levels from recent weeks because this Leicester team still has quality all over the pitch despite not being in the greatest league position at the moment.
Due to the condensed nature of the league, a win for Leicester will take them level on points with Frank Lampard’s side. This could be viewed as a game where just turning up against an inconsistent team could get the job done but with the likes of James Maddison and Harvey Barnes in form, Rodgers’ men have enough to hurt any side they come up against.
Lampard is without three first-team players for the fixture with Yerry Mina, Ben Godfrey and Andros Townsend all missing from action.
The Toffees have two winnable games before the World Cup break with a trip to Bournemouth the Toffees’ final fixture. Everton will be targeting a minimum of four points and qualification into the fourth round of the League Cup as a bare minimum.