Everton have suffered an injury blow ahead of Sunday’s trip to Fulham with Allan picking up a “clinical” problem on international duty with Brazil, say Globo Esporte (h/t Sport Witness).
The 29-year-old picked up a muscular injury in the Seleção’s World Cup qualifier victory over Venezuela on Saturday and hadn’t recovered in time to line up against Uruguay on Wednesday.
Allan has four days to be fit to face Fulham, but it remains to be seen if he’ll make it. Premier Injuries give him a 50% chance of making the game.
What happened?
As per Globo Esporte, Brazil manager Tite has been tight-lipped on Allan’s injury, calling him a “clinical doubt” ahead of the Uruguay clash, so it’s unknown what the extent of the problem is.
The 29-year-old felt muscle pain after the Venezuela clash but trained with the national team on Monday and was evaluated on Tuesday. Allan wasn’t deemed fit to feature on Wednesday and now faces a race to recover for the weekend.
Big loss for Everton
It will be a blow for Everton if Allan isn’t available. He’s made eight appearances in all competitions since joining on a three-year deal from Napoli in September, making 32 tackles, six interceptions, blocking 12 shots/crosses/passes, making 9/14 successful dribbles, creating three chances and completing 88.8% of his 357 passes.
Allan has started seven of our eight Premier League games, amassing 630 minutes from a possible 720, so he’s clearly important to Carlo Ancelotti. Without the Brazilian, we’ll have to choose one of Fabian Delph, Andre Gomes or Tom Davies in midfield. After three consecutive defeats, we need our strongest side to get a result, so might Allan’s absence hamper our chances?
Summary
Brazil’s clash with Uruguay was their last international until March 2021, so Allan will be returning back to Finch Farm for an assessment on his muscle injury.
It’s frustrating that Tite hasn’t disclosed more information about the 29-year-old, but we should learn more about Allan in the next 24 hours. Here’s hoping that it’s good news, as we can’t afford to lose a regular in our first-team while we’re coming off the back of poor form.
In other news, Everton should go all out to sign Dominik Szoboszlai