Mixed Injury News For Key Everton Clash At Wolves

With just two games to play in the 2022-23 Premier League season, Everton sit just above the bottom three and will be looking for a positive result away at Wolverhampton Wanderers on Saturday afternoon to pull further away from the relegation zone.

The Blues were hit by two injury issues in their home defeat against Manchester City last weekend with leftback Vitalii Mykolenko missing the game with a thigh injury picked up in training and then crucially, Dominic Calvert-Lewin not returning after halftime after possibly picking up a groin issue.

Speaking during his pre-match press conference today, manager Sean Dyche updated the status of the pair, starting with the #9 whose return to the squad in recent weeks has made a huge difference to the goal-shy Toffees upfront.

“Hopefully (he can play). He’s had a few down days and it’s looking more promising. He will be with us again tomorrow for training.

“He has come through the last few days well.”

Without Mykolenko and the also-injured Ruben Vinagre, Dyche had to resort to Mason Holgate out at left back, only to have to yank the player in the second half to revert to a back-three formation. The manager might end up going back to that again this weekend as the prognosis has not been good for the Ukraine international.

“I doubt he will be right for this one.

“He has got a chance for the next one. It’s a risk-and-reward scenario and he hasn’t trained. So, therefore, I doubt he will make this one.”

The Blues are going to be short quite a few senior players for this game, with on-loan Conor Coady unavailable against his parent club, Ben Godfrey still out and Andros Townsend having only recently resumed training after a year-long layoff. It looks like Tom Davies is going to be out too.

“He’s had an injury as well, so unlikely to figure this weekend.

“We will wait and see, but it’s a hamstring tendon injury. So he’s highly unlikely to feature this weekend.”

With all these openings in the squad, there might be an opportunity for some of the more outstanding youngsters to join the traveling party to the Midlands on Saturday.