Lampard confirms Calvert-Lewin knee injury news

Given how he struggled last season with injuries, the last thing Everton needed was to have Dominic Calvert-Lewin pick up another knock a mere days before the first game of the new Premier League season.

Yet, that is exactly what has happened. Finch Farm insiders reported yesterday that the England striker had sustained an injury during training this week, and by early this morning most mainstream media sources were also confirming that.

And now manager Frank Lampard has also reiterated that Calvert-Lewin had indeed hurt his knee and would miss the season opener at home against Chelsea on Saturday, but refused to give a timeframe on his return or indeed substantiate that he had torn his lateral crucial ligament in his knee and could miss up to 10 weeks, which is the usual time missed for that nature of injury.

Other journalists however do not believe that it is that severe, with Paul Joyce of the Times suggesting it could only be a month.

While the Blues went through long phases of last season without Calvert-Lewin using Richarlison and Salomon Rondon in his place as a centre-forward, Lampard will not have either option available to him this weekend. The Brazilian has been sold to Tottenham with no direct replacement signed during the transfer window as yet, while the veteran Rondon is suspended for the straight red card he received late last season for a foolish tackle late in the loss against Brentford. The Venezuelan forward’s suspension was for three games, and the clash against Chelsea will be the third of those three games.

Youngster Ellis Simms has gone on loan to Sunderland, leaving Lampard with no choice but to go with Dele Alli as a ‘False 9’, something he has already tried a couple of times during this summer’s pre-season friendlies with some success.

Whether that works or not this weekend, this news will certainly have made it very clear to Director of Football Kevin Thelwell and the Board that a signing for an established striker will have to be made, whether it’s Armando Broja from Chelsea, Maxwel Cornet from Burnley, Emmanuel Dennis from Watford or indeed someone else that we are yet to hear about.