Frank Lampard gives insight into Dominic Calvert-Lewin fitness levels after Everton injury return

Dominic Calvert-Lewin will continue to build up match fitness after making his first Everton appearance of the season.

The striker came off the bench for the final 15 minutes of the Toffees’ 2-1 loss to Manchester United on Sunday.

Calvert-Lewin suffered a knee injury on the eve of the campaign.

And having been plagued by setbacks last term, Everton are managing the England international carefully.

Manager Frank Lampard admitted that Calvert-Lewin was only capable of playing a maximum of 30 minutes against United.

Now the Blues will continue to work with Calvert-Lewin ahead of next weekend’s trip to Tottenham Hotspur.

What’s been said

Lampard said: “Building up match fitness. We've managed him through this return in terms of how he has trained and his workloads because we need to be a bit careful.

“He was not able to start a game but to get him on the pitch was the good thing and gives us clearly a different attacking angle to our play.

“He's a big player for us and that's our positive, at least.

“The noise when he comes on and lifts the crowd is a good thing. You can see what he can bring to us in the longer term but we have to have a longer view.

“We're there now, he got on the pitch and it's another week for him to work going into the next game coming up.

“It's important we do that in the right manner and get him match fit because in the Premier League, you have to be match fit and get to that level where he's going to really affect games like we want him to.

“The noise [from the outside] isn't a problem. We work behind the scenes, see a lot of things and feel a lot of things every day. We have to deal with them in a professional manner.

“He was fit to play 20-30 minutes maximum, hopefuly next week that period of time is longer and then he's our player who we can rely on.

“That gives me really good options with him and Neal [Maupay] up front.”