Abdoulaye Doucoure a doubt for Everton as Sean Dyche offers fitness update on six players
Everton manager Sean Dyche has been offering fitness updates ahead of his team's FA Cup third-round replay with Crystal Palace
Everton manager Sean Dyche admits Abdoulaye Doucoure and Seamus Coleman are both injury doubts for the FA Cup third-round replay against Crystal Palace.
Top-scorer Doucoure, who has netted six times for Everton so far this season, had missed five matches after going off at half-time in the 2-0 win at Burnley on December 16. The Blues failed to register a victory during his absence with the 31-year-old returning against Aston Villa on Sunday but having what would have been a winning goal ruled out for offside in a 0-0 draw.
Everton, who also had a goalless stalemate at Selhurst Park in their previous fixture, now host the Eagles on Wednesday night and when asked about injuries, Dyche said: “Dele is a different situation, Youngy (Ashley Young) is back on the grass with us, training with us, but it’s too quick to come round for him.
“We’ve got a couple of knocks, Seamus maybe, Doucs maybe, they’ve got a couple of knocks. It’s more fatigue for Doucs while Seamus has just got a tightness in his hamstring so we’re going to have to make a decision on that, the rest should be about right.”
READ MORE: Sean Dyche speaks for first time about new Everton Premier League charge
READ MORE: Richard Masters breaks silence over new Everton Premier League charge after MP questions
Vitalii Mykolenko suffered a head injury against Aston Villa when he had an accidental collision with team-mate James Tarkowski but the Ukraine international returned to the field with a bandaged head and produced one of Everton’s best individual displays.
Dyche said: “Goodness me, honestly. Stiches, I said to him: ‘Just get a bit of glue on it, he’ll be fine’, those two (Mykolenko and Tarkowski) are fine, superb performances from both of them.”