Sean Dyche opens up on Michael Keane injury return after featuring in behind-closed-doors match
Sean Dyche has opened up on defender Michael Keane’s return to full fitness and admitted he looked “sharp” in a behind-closed-doors match for Everton this week.
The 30-year-old has been absent from Everton’s last six Premier League match-day squads with a knee injury but will be relishing the opportunity to reunite with his former Burnley boss at Goodison Park.
Speaking to reporters at Finch Farm on Friday, and as relayed by Liverpool Echo, Dyche revealed Keane was heading in the right direction to being back at full-fitness, after injury expert Ben Dinnery (8 February) placed the centre-backs chances of featuring against Liverpool at “25 per cent”.
Dyche said: “I spoke to him last week about him getting his true fitness. We had a behind-closed-doors game in the week, which was really valuable for us for staff and for the players to lock in some minutes. He just needs that and the training.
“We have changed since when he was last with us, but he knows roughly how we work and the expectation we have got of the players physically and is looking to adapt towards that.
“He certainly looked sharp the other day and he knows there is a depth to his fitness that still needs to improve, but is working hard.”
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Dyche will be getting a slight sense of Déjà vu at Everton at the moment, with Keane, James Tarkowski and Dwight McNeil all being a part of his squad at both Burnley and now Goodison Park.
This familiarity can’t do these players any harm whatsoever and could, in fact, prove to be a lifeline for Keane, in particular, who had fallen way down the pecking order under Frank Lampard previously.
With summer recruits Conor Coady and Tarkowski, as well as Ben Godfrey and Yerry Mina above him in the pecking order, Keane will have to knuckle down to reverse his fortunes in the coming months.
You can’t accumulate 12 caps for your country without being a talented defender, so hopefully, Dyche can get the most out of him and restore his confidence once again. If he continues to struggle with a combination of form and injury, however, the English manager may be tempted to caution his exit in the summer transfer window.