You’ll be shocked to hear that we’re having to assess Fabian Delph’s condition ahead of Sunday afternoon’s meeting with Tottenham Hotspur as he’s still recovering from injury and building up his fitness.
Delph recently returned to training and Everton confirmed in the pre-match preview that we would make a late decision on the 30-year-old. I’m not holding my breath on seeing Delph feature, however, as rushing him back has backfired in the past.
So many injuries…
Delph has picked up injury after injury since joining Everton. He’s made only 20/43 appearances in all competitions and amassed a meagre 1471/3870 minutes of playing time due to issues with his groin and hamstring. Delph spent time out due to sickness and muscle problems too and wasn’t reliable from the get-go.
The 30-year-old suffered a groin injury in pre-season and missed our first three Premier League games of the season. He suffered a hamstring injury in October and missed one outing. Delph exacerbated his hamstring injury in November and didn’t return until December. In 2020, the midfielder had sickness in March and a muscle strain in June that kept him out for the remainder of the campaign.
Delph’s last appearance for us came in February, so we’ve had to cope without him for more than half a year.
We have better options available
Not only did we go half the 2019/20 season without Delph, we’ve since strengthened in midfield and may no longer need him. Allan has been brought in from Napoli and Abdoulaye Doucoure has been brought in from Watford. Both players should come straight into the starting eleven if fit, so Delph has a difficult task getting back into the side.
If the 30-year-old is still carrying a knock or isn’t 100%, Carlo Ancelotti won’t risk a setback by playing him too soon. We have better options in the squad now and don’t need to rely on Tom Davies or Gylfi Sigurdsson in a makeshift role.
This season, we could field a side containing Allan, Doucoure and Andre Gomes which is a big improvement on last season.
In other news, here’s why Mason Holgate will miss Everton’s trip to face Tottenham