Everton may be forced into January market after dreadful day at Crystal Palace

Dwight McNeil had to substituted with what certainly at the time looked a pretty serious injury, while Dominic Calvert-Lewin was sent off in the latest VAR controversy to affect Everton this season.

We are still waiting for confirmation of how significant McNeil's problem might be and whether it means he will be spending a considerable amount of time out of the team.

The Blues are appealing Calvert-Lewin's red card but I personally don't hold out much hope that the decision by VAR officials to reverse referee Chris Kavanah's initial response to the challenge, will ultimately be overturned.

If it isn't, then the Toffees face several weeks at least without both players and in McNeil's case it could be a month or even longer if his injury is really serious.

Given how small Sean Dyche's squad is all this will be significant as he wrestles with the relentless shedule of games and resultant fatigue and injuries.

Everton did sign another centre-forward in the summer to compete with Calvert-Lewin in Portuguese striker Beto, but he has struggled for goals and has only scored one in the Premier League all season.

Calvert-Lewin himself hasn't scored since netting the winner at West Ham back in late October so in one sense losing him for three matches isn't that significant. But of course it is the all-round game he offers that makes him integral to the team.

And although Arnaut Danjuma performed well against Palace he hasn't had many minutes this season since joining on loan and doesn't appear to be central to Dyche's thinking.

Well, he may have no choice but to put renewed trust and faith in Danjuma, especially of course if McNeil is going to be out for a significant amount of time.

Regardless, all this means that the club may have to look more seriously at the January transfer market than initially would have been the case and try and find ways to add attacking options.

That of course will be extremely challenging given the problems facing the Blues with no certainly still over the future ownership and finances very tight anyway,

The obvious solution normally would be to sell a player who is not a key part of the managers' plans and then use that money to finances additions.

But the lack of depth in Dyche's squad makes that very difficult if not impossible, with no real spare players not potentially needed, particularly as injuries have been piling up over the last few weeks.

One player who might spark interest from other clubs is the recently returned Andre Gomes, who last season spent spell in French football and only recently returned to the Everton side.

There is apparently interest in the Portuguese midfielder from Turkey and there are reports that a bid might come in for him this month.

And while Gomes return was timely as Dyche was without two of his first-choice central midfielders as both idrissa Gueye and Abdoulaye Doucoure were out, Doucoure at least should be back soon and both Amadou Onana and James Garner are available too.

Selling Gomes would be a risk though with Gana possibly being called up for the Africa Nations Cup this month and I'm not sure it will happen in this window.

Still, Everton might string a surprise and with the team potentially without both McNeil and Calvert-Lewin for a while there is a case for looking more seriously at loans or free agent deals.