Everton confirm that Jean-Philippe Gbamin will be ‘out of action for around three months’ after suffering a ‘setback’ in his recovery that forced him to undergo sugery.
The 24-year-old has been struggling with a quadriceps injury since mid-August, causing him to miss two months of football. Gbamin returned to light training in October, but his rehabilitation didn’t go to plan and he was forced to go under the knife.
It’s a major blow for Everton as they’d been desperate to have their best players available to arrest their slide in the Premier League. The Ivorian international made only two appearances and now won’t return until late-January/early-February.
Marco Silva has the returning Andre Gomes, Fabian Delph, Morgan Schneiderlin and Tom Davies to call upon in midfield, but big things were expected of Gbamin.
The box-to-box player is brilliant at turning over possession, composed on the ball and is creative in the final third. Gbamin had all the qualities to propel Everton out of the relegation zone, but Silva will have to do without him for the majority of the season.