New Everton manager Sean Dyche has vowed to leave no stone unturned when it comes to solving Dominic Calvert-Lewin’s injury woes.
Calvert-Lewin went off after an hour in the 1-0 win over Arsenal which was Dyche’s first game in charge of Everton with a hamstring problem and after missing the 2-0 defeat to Liverpool at Anfield, his boss admitted his chances of featuring in Saturday’s showdown against Leeds United were “improbable.”
Dyche said: “I’m speaking to Dominic, speaking to the medics, the sports science team, getting the stats and facts, training programmes, distance covered, high speed running, how many kilometres in a week, what’s his diet like, what’s his lifestyle like, what car does he drive, what mattress does he use, how many hours does he sleep at night. That’s learning about people but the biggest thing is what’s in here (points to his head), that’s the hard part.
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“I can’t do it all one on one, we have groups with lots of skilled specialists and get all the information I can and share it with him and ask ‘how are you feeling?’
“It’s the same process for all the players through things I’ve learned over my career. I didn’t know stuff like that when I was a player, you had maybe two of those factors.”
Calvert-Lewin, turns 26 next month and Dyche believes the striker is now coming to an age in which he should be able to gauge better whether he is truly in a position to play and do himself justice or not. He said: “I don’t think he’s been properly fit along this situation because of his own will and demand to keep playing, thinking ‘I want to get out there, I want to keep playing.’
“Some players don’t know until after the event that they’ve put so much demand on themselves that they weren’t quite ready. We’re trying to align the process of getting the injury right and getting him right so that he doesn’t break down and can keep going, but that’s what you try and do with every player.
“The human body is built in many different ways and not every player is bulletproof forever. Some are, some are not, some have ups and downs, some have periods and then they get fit and you almost can’t remember it.”
Dyche added: “I hope to trust all my staff including myself, I make the final decision. I hope to trust all the stats and facts plus the feedback and his knowledge because as you get older you learn about your body as well.
“It’s hard to explain but when you’re a player you know the difference when something is not right or something when you go ‘no I can shake that.’ It takes a number of years to learn about your own body, younger players don’t often have it but older players do and Dominic is in that middle bracket of course, you’re usually 25ish plus when you learn that.
“There’s also scientific feedback, medic feedback, my feedback and his feedback, everything goes in the pot. You can’t just leave it forever and have a one-month injury that takes three months just to be sure but there has to be a balance where you go ‘where are we at when you are really, really fit and clear and that’s what we’re searching for.”
Calvert-Lewin plundered 21 goals for Everton in all competitions in the 2020/21 campaign but has featured in just 29 of their 68 matches since the start of last season, netting once this term and Dyche admits he still needs to find out more about his number nine. He said: “Bodies heal at different rates, that’s an absolute scientific fact.
“I’ve got to learn about his history because I don’t know his history. When I know more about his physiological history, I’ll know more about what his body can and cannot take.
“I know him from a distance but I don’t know him as a person. We’re all different as people and so are players.
“Some people will go to work with a cold, some won’t. Some will feel they’re ‘dying’ with a cold, the other one feels alright, we’re all different with different viewpoints about what we can do and what we can’t do.”
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