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Everton are scraping the bottom of the barrel this weekend for the trip away to Chelsea as far as players, with multiple injuries and a suspension decimating the squad.
However, in an interesting decision, manager Ronald Koeman decided to drop forward Kevin Mirallas from the team for this weekend, instead allowing the player to leave earlier for the international break. The Belgian was spotted catching a flight to Brussels from Liverpool airport this morning instead of joining up with the squad at Stamford Bridge.
Picture via @brianmoogan46: Kevin Mirallas at Manchester airport this morning. 9:35 flight to Brussels to join the national team tomorrow? pic.twitter.com/QQucxM6QpK
— Kristof Terreur (@HLNinEngeland) August 27, 2017
When the starting lineup was released for Everton’s game kicking off in a few minutes, Mirallas was indeed nowhere on the teamsheet.
| #EFC XI: Pickford, Baines, Jagielka (c), Williams, Keane, Holgate, Davies, Gana, Sigurdsson, Rooney, Sandro. #EFCawayday pic.twitter.com/BlsBussRa6
— Everton (@Everton) August 27, 2017
The substitutes list was comprised of Stekelenburg, Lennon, Martina, Besic, Calvert-Lewin, Lookman, and Kenny.
There have been rumours that Mirallas has been linked with a move to Olympiakos on loan for the season, which is indeed a possibility as the forward has fallen lower and lower down the pecking order in Ronald Koeman’s estimation.
However, that only makes the decision late last season to award him a new five year extension even more puzzling. Besides for leverage, that deal seems to have been short-sighted in current light.