Everton injury news: James Rodriguez update and Dominic Calvert-Lewin situation
Everton travel to Villa Park on Saturday to face Dean Smith’s Aston Villa who currently sit 12th in the Premier League table after four games. The Toffees are joint top with 10 points out of possible 12, remaining unbeaten in the league so far. Ahead of the game, Rafa Benitez addressed the press, giving updates on Dominic Calvert-Lewin and James Rodriguez.
Everton hope to maintain their unbeaten record by securing a win against Villa who have remodelled themselves after the departure of Jack Grealish, signing talented players like Danny Ings, Leon Bailey and Emiliano Buendia.
Everton stamped their authority on Burnley on Monday, winning 3-1 but the victory was even more instrumental because it was without their star striker and talisman Domini Calvert-Lewin. The Englishman had a toe injury and was playing the first few weeks of the Premier League with pain.
Calvert-Lewin did not join England in the international break and was working on his recovery. Ahead of the Burnley game, Benitez said that the striker is training in pain but is giving his all. However, DCL was missing from the match lineup and when questioned upon, the Spanish boss provided an update saying that the 24 year old is out due to a quadriceps injury.
Everton injury update on Domini Calvert-Lewin and James Rodriguez
In the pre-game presser, Benitez has reiterated that Calvert-Lewin’s situation remains the same.
"No it’s what I said, after the game. Still, we have to wait some weeks. We don’t know exactly how many, but he will not be available for two or three weeks. (club’s official Youtube Channel)"
Meanwhile, after a turbulent summer, James Rodriguez has finally stayed at Merseyside. There were questions regarding his inclusion in Benitez’s system. Ahead of the Burnley tie, the former Napoli boss said that he was training but wasn’t match fit. When questioned today, Benitez has insisted that the Colombian is training normally.
"He’s [James Rodriguez] training, and these kind of week where you have a day off in between, it is not easy to see how much. Today was the first training session and we’ll see tomorrow in another training session but he is training with the team.He’s training with us, yesterday was a day off, today was the first training session, he would train tomorrow and after that we’ll decide, depends on how he’s doing."
Apart from Calvert-Lewin, Everton does not seem to have any more injury troubles. There is uncertainty regarding Rodriguez but the Royal Blues do have an almost full squad available going into Saturday’s tie.
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Will James Rodriguez feature against Aston Villa?