Everton to be without two defenders for trip to Newcastle

According to Marco Silva, Everton will be without their two veteran defenders against Newcastle United on Saturday. Leighton Baines has only just resumed training after his rib injury, while Phil Jagielka has missed the club’s last two training sessions.

Neither player has spent much time on the field this season. The captain Jagielka has a mere 144 minutes of game time over 3 appearances, with Baines not much better at 556 minutes over 8 appearances.

Everton should be fine without their old guard, but Jagielka was preferred on the bench against Liverpool over Yerry Mina, and Baines’ absence leaves the team without a recognized deputy for Lucas Digne.

Mina and Jonjoe Kenny are likely to be in the 18 man squad at St. James’ Park on the weekend, and it’d be nice for the Colombian in particular to get some minutes during the remainder of what has been somewhat of a lost season for him. Whether or not Marco Silva wants to break up the fairly successful pairing of Kurt Zouma and Michael Keane is another story.