Carlo Ancelotti says James Rodriguez will not feature for Everton until April in order to recover fitness; Abdoulaye Doucoure is facing a lengthy spell out after suffering a foot injury; watch Everton vs Burnley live on Sky Sports Premier League this Saturday from 5pm, kick-off 5:30pm
Friday 12 March 2021 14:29, UK
Everton midfielder Abdoulaye Doucoure has been ruled out for up to 10 weeks with a fractured bone in his foot while playmaker James Rodriguez will not play again until after the international break.
Doucoure missed Monday's defeat at Chelsea after coming off in the second half against West Brom just over a week ago and manager Carlo Ancelotti has revealed he faces a long lay-off.
"Doucoure had a small fracture on his foot. I don't know how long, maybe eight weeks or 10 weeks. I hope he can recover before the end of the season," said the Italian.
Rodriguez had been playing less than fully fit but has missed the last three matches as Ancelotti wants him to fully recover from a calf problem which is restricting him.
It means the Colombia international will miss at least Saturday's visit of Burnley and next weekend's FA Cup quarter-final at home to Manchester City.
"James played well, really well, against Man United and against Liverpool but he was not 100 per cent fit," added the Everton manager.
"We decided to give him a proper recovery and don't let him play at 70 or 80 per cent. We have taken this decision together. The player agrees."
Yerry Mina and Seamus Coleman are available this weekend, Fabian Delph remains sidelined, while Gylfi Sigurdsson will be assessed ahead of the visit of Burnley.
"I think we are not the only club that has to manage injuries. In this period there are a lot of injuries and we have to manage this," Ancelotti added.
"We were able to manage the absences of Allan and [Lucas] Digne for a long time, so I think we will be able to.
"We have Tom Davies back, we have [Seamus] Coleman back, we have [Yerry] Mina back. And so I think that we can manage."
Everton, currently sixth in the Premier League and four points behind the top four, will be aiming to bounce back on Saturday from their 2-0 defeat to Chelsea which halted a run of three successive wins in the top-flight.
Watch Everton vs Burnley live on Sky Sports Premier League this Saturday from 5pm, kick-off 5:30pm.
