Everton fans react with fury after Dominic Calvert-Lewin claim is proven wrong

With Everton fans rejoicing at the return of Dominic Calvert-Lewin earlier this month, they were led to believe that this was the ‘fittest’ he had been for some time.

Flash forward to the present day and the forward finds himself injured once again ahead of Everton’s biggest game for years.

Having missed a large majority of the season due to injuries, the 26-year-old has only managed to feature 17 times in total in the league, scoring just twice.

Most of those performances haven’t seen the player fully fit either as he’s been thrown in at different times when Everton have been desperate for goals.

In terms of his latest return, one journalist for the iPaper had claimed an inside source at the club had revealed that: “Sean Dyche has played an absolute blinder, it’s the fittest he’s been in years.”

This was from the Northern correspondent for iPaperSport Mark Douglas; he also went onto say:

“Everton have stuck to a painstaking and meticulous 11-week fitness plan for Calvert-Lewin that has incorporated – at various points – psychology, plyometrics, neural training, resistance work, a one-man warm weather camp and individual sprint training that seems to have paid off spectacularly in the last two games.”

He was right, to a certain extent. The two games in question were the 2-2 draw with Leicester City and the 5-1 demolition of Brighton, both games saw the forward lead the line brilliantly, giving fans hope that he could sustain until the end of the season.

Following that, he came off at half-time against Manchester City with a reported tight groin before coming off again in the 1-1 draw with Wolves last weekend with a supposed hamstring injury. The frustration continues.

Now, with Dyche’s side needing to win the last game to confirm their status, Calvert-Lewin is unlikely to be leading the line on Sunday which means one of Demarai Gray, Neal Maupay or Ellis Simms will have the chance to do so instead.

The report from two weeks ago from Douglas was met with plenty of sarcastic responses on social media, with one saying: ‘Why did we fall for it!’

Whilst another said: ‘Well this aged well...’

Another fan echoed those views: ‘They had me hoodwinked...’

Attention turns to Bournemouth at Goodison Park on Sunday and fans will be wondering who will be able to step up on what is their biggest game of the season.