Everton manager Sean Dyche has confirmed Dominic Calvert-Lewin will miss his side's trip to Chelsea on Saturday evening. This comes after the star striker suffered yet another setback in a campaign plagued by injuries.
Dyche has only been able to play Calvert-Lewin once since he replaced Frank Lampard in the Toffees dugout at the end of January. This came during the Merseysiders' 1-0 home win over Arsenal that kicked-off the former Burnley manager's reign.
His absence will come as a relief to Graham Potter and the Chelsea defenders, as Everton have found goals hard to come by in his absence. Dyche, speaking in his pre-match press conference, said that he never expected to have Calvert-Lewin, who wasn't pictured at training, for this weekend's clash.
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“We’re still monitoring the situation,” said Dyche. “We’re being careful, he’s being careful with his body to try and give him every opportunity.
“It wasn’t overly in my thinking for the Chelsea game, regardless of anything else. Because the international break comes and you can hopefully use that even more wisely."
When asked about his non-appearance at the training ground this week, Dyche added: “He’s just felt something that we’ve had to be careful with, that's all, and he’s had to be careful with. We’re trying to get him to [be] as strong as he was two years ago, and get him back to that statistical level, as well as what we see and how he feels.
“We’ll see, there’s nothing other than me just wanting to get him out there training every day and feel good about that. That’s the best start point, and we’ll take it from there.”
This is yet another blow to Everton's Premier League survival chances. Saturday's visitors sit just one point above the relegation zone, while no side has scored fewer goals than Everton's tally of 20 in England's top flight.
Having tried out both Neal Maupay and Ellis Simms in the No. 9 position, Dyche appears to have settled on Demarai Gray as an unorthodox striker. Gray has started in that role for both of Everton's last two games against Nottingham Forest and Brentford - which the Toffees drew 2-2 and won 1-0 respectively - and appears likely to retain his place at Stamford Bridge.
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