Andros Townsend’s season is over, after scans revealed a major tear to his anterior cruciate ligament.
And the unlucky forward is facing the prospect of his Everton career being effectively over, as he fights to return from a career-threatening injury which requires a recovery period of, on average, nine to 12 months. Townsend’s contract is up next summer, which means that, even if he returned from the crippling injury sooner than expected, there would not be much of next season left to get back to Premier League match fitness.
It is a tough blow for the likeable winger, who was an instant success at Goodison after joining on a free transfer last summer. His work rate and commitment is loved by the Everton fans, and he got the visiting fans behind him at Palace last weekend, where he sustained the injury.
Townsend has hardly been used by new boss Frank Lampard, but in the 12 minutes he was on the pitch in the FA Cup tie, his energy lifted the Blues and they outplayed their opponents in the opening minutes. But following his injury, Everton collapsed to a 4-0 defeat, which left Lampard accusing his players afterwards of “lacking the b******s” for the fight.
The winger was a regular early in the season, but since the arrival of Lampard he made just one Premier League start, and was given only three starts in total, with two coming in the FA Cup against Palace and Boreham Wood.
It means he will face a fight for an Everton future, though the former England man has shown courage in the past in fighting back from adversity. A club statement revealed the extent of the injury, and stated that he will undergo surgery next week, before starting his rehab with the Blues medical staff at the Finch Farm training facility. The statement added: “Everyone at Everton wishes Andros all the best with his recovery.”
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Lampard spoke after Everton's defeat to Palace about the blow of losing Townsend during the game. He said: "I’m devastated for him. He started the match well, we started well as a team. Our game was spot on and they couldn’t get out of their half. We had opportunities and Andros was a part of that. It was a setback in terms of losing a player after a good start, but we shouldn’t have ended up how we did.”
Everton are back in action on Sunday April rd at West Ham before a trip to Burnley three days later with Lampard keen for the Toffees to get through a sticky patch. He added: "We have to get our heads down and fight. That’s what the fans want to see. I’ll fight until the very end – not just in these 11 games but for the future, to keep getting better.
"We haven’t had loads of time [to train consistently], so there will be something positive in the fact we haven’t got a game so we can work repetitively on defending and how we attack with conviction – and not just attacking for the sake of it, we want to attack to go and score."
