Everton trio set for Monday scans on injuries after loss v Leicester
Three Everton players will have to undergo scans on Monday (7 November) to determine the severity of their injuries, Frank Lampard has confirmed.
Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Amadou Onana and Idrissa Gana Gueye all hobbled off the Goodison Park pitch on Saturday (5 November) as Leicester City ran out 2-0 winners on Merseyside thanks to goals from Youri Tielemans and Harvey Barnes.
Their early exits from the game did not help the Toffees’ chase to get back into the game and it could be bad news for some when the scans are done.
“Gana’s is a sensation at the top of his quad so he will have a scan on Monday,” Lampard said, as quoted by Joe Thomas. “Dominic’s is a hamstring scan on Monday and Onana’s is his ankle, he will have a scan on Monday.”
Everton have just two games left before the World Cup, both of which are trips to the south coast to take on Bournemouth with one in the Carabao Cup and one in the Premier League.
Bare bones
Calvert-Lewin’s injury does not really surprise anybody given his recent record on the physio’s bench but what might hit Lampard very hard is if Onana and Gueye are out for a long time.
They have been ever-present since they arrived on Merseyside late in the transfer window and have forged a very good partnership together to allow Alex Iwobi the license to roam free alongside them.
James Garner will be able to replace one of them but other options are actually light on the ground at Goodison Park with only Abdoulaye Doucoure left as a natural central midfielder.
It could be a risk to start all of them with no obvious replacement behind them if injury strikes again so it could be worth Lampard switching to a back five.
Nathan Patterson is now fit and able to play as a right wing-back which would then allow Garner and Iwobi to play together in the middle and Seamus Coleman can keep his place on the right side of a three-man central defence.