James McFadden's broken foot will keep him out of Scotland's game against Italy.
James McFadden's broken foot will keep him out of contention for at least another month, meaning the striker will play no part in Scotland's Euro 2008 qualifying match against Italy.
The 23-year-old sustained the injury in a freak training ground incident at the end of January and, despite having a successful operation, was already due to miss his country's clash with Georgia on 24th March.
And Everton head physio Mick Rathbone has now revealed McFadden will also miss the Italy game four days later.
"He will have another X-ray in two weeks' time and hopefully will be able to start some jogging after that," he told evertonTV. "He is doing stuff in the pool and the gym now.
"When a pin is placed, it does stabilise the fracture and you can be a little bit more robust with them, so you do tend to get a slightly earlier return to playing."
David Moyes added: "Faddy is doing okay at the moment and we have had him about the place again.
"He is walking around and making progress, but nothing has really changed. We always expected it to be between six to eight weeks and, at the moment, it is looking closer to eight before he is ready."
Everton will also have to make do without the services of Nuno Valente throughout March.
Portugal international Valente sustained a calf problem in early January and, like McFadden, will miss his country's upcoming qualifying matches in March.
