David Prentice of the Liverpool Echo has been discussing the injury sustained by the Everton defender Seamus Coleman whilst on international duty with the Republic of Ireland on a recent episode of the Royal Blue podcast.
The right-back recently missed the Premier League fixtures versus Southampton and Newcastle United but returned for the recent defeat at the hands of Manchester United (as per Transfermarkt).
The 32-year-old was forced to pull out of Ireland’s game at Wembley versus England and the journalist described the situation regarding the player and the need to play international fixtures at present as “absolutely ridiculous”.
Here is what he had to say:
“It’s absolutely ridiculous. I don’t want to cast aspersions about the way the Republic of Ireland appears to look after their players, but this is a recurring theme, isn’t it? Everton have had numerous run-ins with the Irish setup going back to Ronald Koeman’s time.
“Seamus Coleman clearly has been struggling with a hamstring problem. Now, we know it’s his decision, we know he is the international captain, we know he’s desperate to go out there and represent his country, but sometimes a little bit of common sentence has to be used.
“No one is massively surprised that he’s gone on international duty and suffered a recurrence.”
Can Everton be as effective without Seamus Coleman?
Yes
No
TIF Thoughts on Seamus Coleman’s latest injury troubles…
Coleman’s average performance rating in the Premier League this season currently stands at a solid 6.92/10 (as per WhoScored) and, therefore, you can understand why Prentice has clearly been left disappointed by the fact he may face another spell on the sidelines.
In their next three fixtures, the Toffees face Fulham, Leeds United and Burnley. In our view, if Carlo Ancelotti’s side have aspirations of qualifying for Europe next season, they’ll be expecting to take a healthy points total from the aforementioned games but it is not clear if Coleman will be available for some if any of those matches and what impact that might have on their performances as a team.