Everton forward Dominic Calvert-Lewin will be unavailable for at least two or three weeks with toe and quad injuries; the news was confirmed by manager Rafael Benitez before the club's clash against Burnley on Monday Night Football
Monday 13 September 2021 20:04, UK
Dominic Calvert-Lewin faces a spell out with a broken toe and a quad injury, Everton manager Rafael Benitez has confirmed.
The 24-year-old, who has scored three goals in as many Premier League games this season, is not a part of the Everton squad to face Burnley on Monday Night Football.
When asked about the striker's absence, Benitez confirmed Calvert-Lewin will be out for at least two or three weeks and will be monitored by the club's medical staff.
"He has broken his toe," Benitez said. "He was training with problems and playing with pain.
"He had an injury the other day to his quadriceps and we have to wait two-to-three weeks, maybe more."
It is a blow to an Everton side who have begun life under Benitez in encouraging fashion, with Calvert-Lewin emerging as a reliable goalscorer following breakthrough campaigns in 2019-20 and 2020-21.
Calvert-Lewin's goalscoring exploits also earned him a senior England call-up in 2020. He has since gone on to feature 11 times for the Three Lions, scoring four times and was a member of the squad at Euro 2020.
When James Rodriguez was unveiled as an Everton player amid much fanfare last September, it was rightly viewed as a major coup and a sign of the club's stated ambition under Carlo Ancelotti.
Reunited with the Italian for a third time in his illustrious career, the end of his six-year stay at Real Madrid was marked across the city's landmarks through billboards and a projection on the Albert Dock.
It was not just in Liverpool where Rodriguez's arrival was making waves. The tallest skyscraper in Bogota, the Torre Colpatria, was lit up with a spectacular blue light show displaying James's No 19 shirt. There were also displays in New York's Times Square and in Miami Beach.
For those who are yet to see him at Goodison, Rodriguez is viewed as a one-season wonder in a marriage with Ancelotti that almost seemed too good to be true. But with his mentor gone, there was a sense of inevitability the Colombian would also seek pastures new.
