Frank Lampard has revealed that Nathan Patterson was set to make his Everton Premier League debut before rolling his ankle in training on Saturday. The right-back started twice for his country over the course of the international break, which sparked many thoughts that the January recruit could be given his first opportunity in the English top division this weekend against West Ham.
However, the defender was left out of the side altogether as the Blues played out a 2-1 defeat at the London Stadium. He will be joined on the sidelines by Donny van de Beek, who was named in the starting line-up this weekend before pulling up shortly before kick off - being replaced by Mason Holgate.
Lampard has revealed that both players will be assessed in the coming days, but admitted that the problem for the defender was "unfortunate".
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The Everton boss said: "Patterson turned his ankle in training yesterday, which is disappointing because he's in a good moment - he played for Scotland with two good performances. He would have made his league debut.
"It's unfortunate, we'll scan that. It might not be the best injury, but we'll see when we get the actual result.
"And Donny had a muscle injury, his quad. We don't know the size of it, hopefully it's a small one, but not enough to start a game - maybe having to then shuffle around after five or ten minutes."
Mason Holgate was the man who came in to replace Van de Beek when his injury was confirmed. However, that decision didn't change the shape of the side all too much.
Lampard confirmed: "Mason came in and stepped into the midfield like-for-like. It's an area where we know we don't have many defensive-minded midfield players, that's the make up of the squad.
"As players, their first instinct isn't defensive or to protect the back four. Mason gave us that in there, gave me a chance to see that as well. I think he did well especially coming into there last minute."
