Tony Scott has been speaking on the All Together Now podcast about the double injury blow which has been dealt to Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Abdoulaye Doucoure this week.
The Toffees made a great start to the season under Rafael Benitez, going unbeaten in their opening four league games, but one win in their previous four league match-ups has halted some of the momentum they’d built up.
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Benitez has had to deal with fans’ animosity as well as a boatload of injuries to key players this season such as Richarlison, Jordan Pickford, Calvert-Lewin and Doucoure – with the latter two being the latest to suffer setbacks.
Calvert-Lewin has only played three matches this season for Everton, and this week, the Toffees confirmed that he’s experienced a setback in his recovery, while Doucoure is set for a prolonged period of time on the sidelines, which will be a huge blow for Benitez, who’s morphed the Frenchman into a top midfielder with two goals and four assists thus far.
Scott revealed how long the Everton duo are set to be out for.
“I think from what I’m hearing, Calvert-Lewin is [a] numerous amount of weeks and Everton aren’t giving a time on that, I think that would be roughly four weeks.
“I think Doucoure, 6-7 [weeks] we’re hearing on that one, so we’re at the end of October – we won’t see Calvert-Lewin until the end of November, we won’t see Doucoure until the end of December.”
TIF Thoughts on Everton’s injury situation…
This is the sort of injury crisis that could see Everton’s promising start to the season totally derailed, as they’re missing a crop of their top players, and most importantly, their two top scorers from last campaign. and can’t continue to rely on Demarai Gray and Andros Townsend’s purple patch continuing.
Doucoure is likely to be the biggest blow as he’s out until December, according to Scott, as the Frenchman had started every league game alongside Allan, so Benitez now has to decide which midfielder can replace Doucoure and complement Allan the way he did.
The Frenchman’s impact alongside Allan is obvious as the pair of them are in the top two for pressures this campaign as well as tackles (FBRef), so they’re clearly holding down the midfield and winning a lot of their battles, so whoever replaces Doucoure has an almighty task on their hands.
In other news: ‘That needs sorting’ – Journalist shares ‘holes’ Everton have ‘desperately got to plug’