Why Abdoulaye Doucoure is absent for Everton as two changes made against Chelsea

David Moyes has named his Everton team for the penultimate game at Goodison Park.

The Toffees face Ipswich Town and have made two changes to the starting line-up from last weekend’s 1-0 loss at Chelsea. Dwight McNeil is back in the starting XI for the first time since December. McNeil has recently recovered from a knee injury and has come off the bench four times. The ex-Burnley forward is in for Jack Harrison on the right flank.

Meanwhile, Charly Alcaraz is back in from the outset. Moyes has admitted he wants to continue the on-loan Flamengo midfielder before making a decision on whether to sign him permanently this summer. Everton are not obliged to do so. Alcaraz replaces Abdoulaye Doucoure, who is not in the match-day squad. Moyes has confirmed that Doucoure has a personal problem and is not injured. The Everton boss said: “Doucs has a personal problem which has meant he's not available for the game, so that meant that it gave us a bit of an opening as to what we were going to do.

“We just thought there was an opportunity – Dwight has been back but maybe not quite fully fit, but he's getting closer to that so it's a chance to get him back in the team. Charly Alcaraz has deserved a start in the team, so he gets in the team today and Ili [Ndiaye] will probably play more as a No.10 today – he'll certainly start in there and that's where people see him, so let's see what he can do.”

In addition, Dominic Calvert-Lewin is back on the bench after overcoming a long-term hamstring issue. It’s the first time he’s back involved since sustaining his issue during a 1-0 win at Brighton & Hove Albion in January.

Everton: Pickford; Patterson, O'Brien, Branthwaite, Mykolenko; Gueye, Garner; Ndiaye, McNeil, Alcaraz; Beto

Subs: Virginia, Keane, Calvert-Lewin, Harrison, Chermiti, Young, Broja, Coleman, Iroegbunam