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Injury blows put Everton survivial hopes in further doubt

By Matt Townsend

WOLVERHAMPTON, ENGLAND - MAY 20: Nathan Patterson of Everton goes down injured during the Premier League match between Wolverhampton Wanderers and Everton FC at Molineux on May 20, 2023 in Wolverhampton, England. (Photo by Joe Prior/Visionhaus via Getty Images)
WOLVERHAMPTON, ENGLAND - MAY 20: Nathan Patterson of Everton goes down injured during the Premier League match between Wolverhampton Wanderers and Everton FC at Molineux on May 20, 2023 in Wolverhampton, England. (Photo by Joe Prior/Visionhaus via Getty Images) /
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Both Nathan Patterson and Dominic Calvert-Lewin are major doubts ahead of the final weekend of the season when Everton need a win to guarantee survival.

Full-back Patterson is almost certain to miss the match against Bournemouth having come off with what looked to be a hamstring injury at Molineux.

And, predictably having only just got back to fitness and returned to the Everton team at last, Calvert-Lewin left the pitch at half-time in both of the last two games with further problems, making his chances of taking to the pitch on Sunday 50-50 at best.

It is just so typical that almost anything that can go wrong for this team will do. DCL just couldn’t stay fit enough for one more game.

Injuries have been an unbelievable problem for years now and once again they threaten to seriously undermine the Blues chances in this weekend’s huge end-of-season relegation decider.

In some ways Patterson’s absence may prove to be even more critical than Calvert-Lewin, as the Toffees are used to having to do without their first-choice centre-forward.

And while his return made a huge difference to the potency and effectiveness of Everton’s attack (most clearly shown in that 5-1 win at Brighton) the Blues have had to employ a makeshift attack without him most of the campaign and have won games, albeit only a few.

Patterson though was the only fit natural full-back Sean Dyche had available last weekend and his absence on Sunday will be a major headache for the manager.

Seamus Coleman is out for the rest of the season of course, and both Vitalii Mykolenko and Ben Godfrey are still struggling with injuries and likely won’t make it in time for this weekend.

That means he may have to turn to Mason Holgate, who when Dyche did strangly pick him, has proved little short of a disaster filling in at full-back recently.

As a result the manager may have to resort to deploying a back three against Bournemouth, something he obviously doesn’t want to do.

Having to employ a new-look makeshift defence for perhaps the biggest game in this club’s long history is a nightmare full of all sorts of diasterous possibilities.

Everton really do have the most incredible bad luck, particularly with injuries. You couldn’t make it up and once again it has struck just when this struggling side and this club, need it least of all.

So, Dyche has some serious thinking to do this week as he plots to put together a team that can do enough to win Sunday’s crunch clash at Goodison Park.