Everton suffer latest injury blow ahead of Man Utd clash as Nathan Patterson sidelined long-term

‘Freak’ injury sidelines Toffees defender Nathan Patterson.
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Everton are set to be without defender Nathan Patterson for up to six weeks due to a knee ligament injury, Frank Lampard has revealed.

And Toffees forwards Anthony Gordon and Dominic Calvert-Lewin have also emerged as doubts for Friday's visit to Manchester United in the FA Cup.

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Patterson was forced off just over an hour into Tuesday's 4-1 thrashing by Brighton at Goodison Park, and Lampard could only offer bad news when asked for an update.

He said: "He's out for six weeks, unfortunately. It's a medial ligament injury. It's a blow and kind of a freak one in terms of how he did the injury.

"Big blow for us, he's a young full-back who's come in and broke through and done well for us, and now it's time for others to take that mantle. Six weeks sounds like a long time now but he'll be back."

Lampard went onto explain that Gordon and Calvert-Lewin may also be absent for an upcoming trip to Old Trafford as a result of illness and fatigue respectively.

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He added: "We've had illness with Anthony Gordon, Yerry Mina is over it but Anthony is at the back end of it. So we'll have to consider that.

"Dominic was pretty fatigued after the Brighton game so we have to consider that as well going into the game. We'll see whether he's fit to start or not so. Other than that we are where we were."

Everton's attacking options will at least be boosted by the return of young striker Ellis Simms, who has been recalled from Sunderland after scoring seven goals in 17 appearances on loan in the first half of the season.

Lampard said: "It's another attacking option for us, a player who is ours. It was relatively easy in that sense, he's ours to have and be competitive in the squad.

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"He now needs to show in training [he has] this level, it's the Premier League. He had a good loan and now [needs] to show that he's worthy of coming in and affecting games for us. He's just back recently for us so we hope to see that."

The Toffees' last domestic cup outing saw a much-changed starting XI beaten 4-1 by Bournemouth in the League Cup third round.

However, the manager is unlikely to make as many tweaks to his line-up for this one, with his side desperately seeking momentum and a kinder fixture schedule ahead.

Lampard added: "That was a different situation because we had a lot of players that were pushing to play and they had to come in and try and show that they deserved to play more regularly.

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"We had three games in a week and we came off the back of four injuries at Leicester, so I had to make changes in that game for different reasons. This game is different, we don't play afterwards until Southampton nine days after, so that will affect my selection."

Everton predicted XI: Pickford; Coleman, Tarkowski, Coady, Mykolenko; Gueye, Onana; Gray, Iwobi, McNeil; Maupay.