Everton international duty update

It’s time for everyone’s favorite time of the year — one last chance to spend a week not watching club football, but instead panicking about the potential health and status of their favorite club players.

That’s right, it’s time for the November international break!

In seriousness, this break comes at a pretty unfortunate time for Everton. The Toffees are in the midst of an impressive run of form, and Marco Silva will surely be unhappy at losing his most important players for a week. Yet, with injuries to Gylfi Sigurdsson and Andre Gomes already on the table, Everton may luck out and see neither player miss any club football.

At any rate, the Toffees do have a substantial number of players going out on international duty over the next week — even with Sigurdsson and Gomes missing out due to injury. I particularly feel bad for Gomes, who received his first Portugal call up since March, but will be out with a leg bruise.

Let’s take a look at what’s in store for the international Toffees in the coming days.

Senior Team

• Michael Keane will join Jordan Pickford in the England squad for a friendly against the United States on November 15 and a UEFA Nations League match against Croatia on November 18. It’s Keane’s first international call up in 12 months.
• Lucas Digne will join his French counterparts ahead of a November 16 Nations League match against Netherlands and November 20 friendly against Uruguay. He will not be joined by Kurt Zouma, who was called up in October but left off this time around.
• Speaking of big center-backs, Yerry Mina will thankfully be staying with the club during this break, as Colombia doesn’t have any matches scheduled.
• Cenk Tosun will rejoin Turkey for a Nations League match against Sweden on November 17 and a friendly against Ukraine on November 20.
• Seamus Coleman will also be participating in League B Nations League matches this week, as Ireland takes on Denmark on November 19. Coleman will also take on Northern Ireland in a November 15 friendly. James McCarthy, mercifully, was not called in by Martin O’Neill, as he continues his recovery to full fitness.
• Senegal and Idrissa Gueye take on Equatorial Guinea in an AFCON qualifier on November 17. Oumar Niasse once again was not included in the squad.
• Everyone’s favorite Brazilian will look to continue his international breakout, as Richarlison joins Brazil for friendlies against Uruguay and Cameroon on November 16 and 20, respectively. Bernard remains outside of the national team picture, having last played for his country in the historic 7-1 drubbing against Germany at the 2014 FIFA World Cup.

Loan Players

A fair number of Everton’s on-loan players will see time for their national team this week as well.

• Antonee Robinson, however, will not be among them after suffering a sprained ankle in training with the United States. He’ll miss out on a chance to take on Pickford, Keane, and England.
• For some inexplicable reason, Wales continues to call in Ashley Williams, who so far this season hasn’t even looked good enough to play for Stoke City. He’ll presumably make grotesque defending errors in his county’s Nations League match against Denmark on November 16 and friendly against Albania on November 20.
• Speaking of players toiling in the Championship, Yannick Bolasie has been called in to play for Democratic Republic of Congo in two matches against Congo (yes, different country) in AFCON qualifying play.
• Closing out our trio of Championship loanees is Muhamed Besic, who will face off against Austria and Spain on duty for Bosnia and Herzegovina.
• Nikola Vlasic will take a break from striking fear into the hearts of Russian clubs’ defenses by joining up with Croatia. His nation faces Spain on November 15 and England on November 18 — both in Nations League play.
• Henry Onyekuru, currently on loan with Galatasaray in Turkey, will head out on national team duty for Nigeria, who faces South African in an AFCON qualifier and Uganda in a friendly. He picked up an assist in nine minutes of action during the last international break.

Youth Players

And finally, some of Everton’s youth contingent will head out to play for Aidy Boothroyd’s England U21 side.

• Tom Davies, Kieran Dowell, Dominic Calvert-Lewin, and Ademola Lookman all made the team, and could feature in friendlies against Italy and Denmark.
• Interestingly, Mason Holgate wasn’t the only notable exclusion from the England youth setup. Jonjoe Kenny, who was called up in October, did not make the cut this time around. Silva reported that Kenny had a small injury ahead of the Brighton match on November 3, but indicated that he expected they’d be back in training ahead of the Chelsea match. It’s possible that Boothroyd elected to play it safe with Kenny’s injury — though his form pre-injury was such that being passed over on quality alone is possible.

As always, good luck and (more importantly) good health to all the Everton players heading out to represent their countries this week.