Everton summer signing James Garner has suffered an injury blow, having been ruled out of action until February with a back problem.
The midfielder joined the club for £15m from Manchester United after a successful loan spell at Nottingham Forest, where he helped Steve Cooper’s side achieve a historic promotion to the Premier League with four goals and ten assists in 49 games.
However, he struggled with injury upon arrival at Goodison Park and made just seven appearances in all competitions for The Toffees, who are currently 17th in the Premier League table.
Speaking to GIVEMESPORT, injury expert Ben Dinnery gave an assessment of how his latest injury will prove problematic for the 21-year-old.
“The difficulty is that he is a player who recently arrived at the club and just managed to get himself back in contention in terms of his fitness, having missed a lot of football before that,” Dinnery stated.
“This major setback is going to really affect him for the second half of the season.”
TIF Thoughts on James Garner…
There may have been some surprise when Man United let Garner go in the summer, given that he was one of the most promising talents to come out of their academy recently, and his stunning performances on loan at Forest could have been enough to see him get a chance at Old Trafford.
The Englishman is clearly a very talented player, who has been struck down by bad luck when trying to gain consistency in a struggling side.
He will hope to gain something from this season should he return to fitness in February, but even if he does not, he still has plenty of time on his hands to prove his former employers wrong about selling him.
It is also a blow for Frank Lampard, who has fewer options in midfield to rotate with his trusted three of Alex Iwobi, Amadou Onana and Idrissa Gana Gueye.