EVERTON MANAGER RONALD Koeman has confirmed this afternoon that the Toffees will be without the services of James McCarthy for two-to-three weeks.
The Ireland midfielder was withdrawn in the first half of Monday night’s Premier League defeat to Liverpool at Goodison Park due to a hamstring problem.
It’s another setback for a player whose career has often been interrupted by injuries, which has occasionally been a bone of contention between his managers at club and international level.
“Again, it’s a slight hamstring [injury] and of course that’s bad news because the boy was doing well,” Koeman said today ahead of Everton’s meeting with Leicester City on St Stephen’s Day.
“Of course I’m a little bit worried about a lot of these kinds of injuries. He will be out for about two or three weeks.”
Koeman added: “We need to do everything we can to keep him fit regularly and to have more consistency in his game-time. That’s the most important thing. We’ll see after two or three weeks how he’s coming back. Then we can make decisions about fixtures.”
While Everton have a busy schedule on the horizon with four games in the space of 13 days, McCarthy won’t be required by Ireland until 24 March when Martin O’Neill’s side take on Wales in Dublin.
