Everton Injury update: Defender returns but four players remain sidelined for Spurs tie

Everton welcomes Tottenham Hotspur to Goodison Park as Antonio Conte takes charge of the first Premier League game as Spurs manager. Everton has received a lot of flak for their recent underwhelming performances.

After three successive losses, the Toffees will be aiming to bounce back against Spurs but getting past the North London side isn’t going to be a walk in the rose garden, especially, given the squad depth and injury issues that have haunted Rafa Benitez and the team for a long time now.

Dominic Calvert-Lewin last played on 28th August. The English forward was in stellar form but his rampaging run came to a halt as he picked up a quadricep injury. Meanwhile, Andre Gomes suffered a calf injury in the Carabao Cup tie against QPR and has been sidelined ever since. The injury list keeps on growing as Yerry Mina felt his hamstring ahead of the Watford game and has been spending time on the treatment table.

Arguably, Everton’s best player so far, Abdoulaye Doucoure also fell victim to a stress fracture which has ruled him out for four to five weeks. This was another big blow for Benitez as the Spanish manager has been left with a wafer thin squad. Lucas Digne also missed the away trip to Wolves and ahead of the game there was some hope that the Frenchman would be available for the Spurs game.

Everton  Injury Update vs Tottenham Hotspur

Ahead of the game on Sunday, Rafa Benitez spoke in the pre-match press conference, addressing the injury issues in the squad.

"We had too many players who had been injured for a long time. Now we have Tosun, we have Delph, Branthwaite is coming back. [Lucas] Digne is fine, he has been training so hopefully he’ll be available.No Yerry Mina, No Andre Gomes, No Doucoure, No Calvert-Lewin. Lucas Digne has been training he is fine. More or less, the problem we had in the past. We are bringing them back little by little. One of the reasons why we appointed a rehabilitation coach is to have these players or they have different options to be fit as soon as possible. (via club’s official Youtube channel)"

The former Valencia coach will be delighted to have Fabian Delph in contention as he was one of the brightest players on the pitch in the second half against Wolves at Molineux. Digne’s return will also allow Ben Godfrey to operate in the centre back role alongside Michael Keane. However, Mina’s absence will continue to hurt the Merseysiders.

Everton will want to secure a positive result before breaking into the international break, aiming to end the three match losing streak but with Conte at Tottenham’s helm, the tough job got even tougher.

Will the injury issues once again haunt Everton?