Yerry Mina has been ruled out of Everton’s meeting with Norwich City on Wednesday evening and the Toffees have confirmed Fabian Delph will be another player ‘sidelined’ for the trip to Carrow Road. The 30-year-old missed Everton’s 0-0 draw with Liverpool as he was struggling with a muscle injury, but Carlo Ancelotti expects him to return in time to face Leicester City next Wednesday.
The Everton boss said in his pre-match press conference: “We didn’t suffer any new injuries against Liverpool, so the same squad will be available for Norwich. Yerry Mina and Fabian Delph are close to coming back but they are not available for the game on Wednesday. I hope for the next game they will be available.”
Delph has made 20/35 appearances in all competitions since joining for $8.55m from Manchester City last summer, but he’s had a forgettable debut season. The England international has been short of form, fitness and playing time, picking up four separate injuries, playing only 46.6% of the time (1471 minutes from a possible 3150) and often underperforming when he did feature.
Everton are short of midfielders ahead of their meeting with Norwich – Jean-Philippe Gbamin has been ruled out until 2021 due to an achilles injury, Morgan Schneiderlin has been sold to OGC Nice and Delph is slowly recovering. That leaves Andre Gomes, Gylfi Sigurdsson, Tom Davies and Beni Baningime to choose from, so Everton aren’t blessed in the engine room.
It’s why Adrien Rabiot, Allan, Angelo Fulgini, Franck Kessie, Morgan Sanson, Mohammed Kudus, Geoffrey Kondogbia, Davide Frattesi, Matias Vecino, John McGinn and Idrissa Gueye are on Ancelotti’s radar this summer, but it remains to be seen which player Everton end up signing.