It is certainly cold and flu season right now, as you have several nasty bugs currently going around. One of them hit Everton winger Jack Grealish, and it was bad enough to force him to miss the goalless draw witn Burnley yesterday.
He’s a doubt for the next match, a Tuesday night clash at Nottingham Forest.
“He’s just got a bit of a virus and not been well over Christmas time, so he’s not available today,” Everton manager David Moyes.
Meanwhile central defender Jarrad Branthwaite is making solid progress towards his return from a thigh injury, but we should not expect to see him back on the pitch until later on next month, at best.
“Jarrad is getting closer to the grass now, so we’re hoping we can maybe get him by the end of the month,” Moyes said before the Burnley match.
“But it might be a bit longer than that. We need to see. He’s not due to integrate back in with the squad for another 2-3 weeks, so it’s not as if we’ll get him back quickly, but it’s beginning to look a lot better.”
Elsewhere Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and Seamus Coleman (both of which have thigh injuries) remain out. Iliman Ndiaye and Idrissa Gueye are away at AFCON.
The same can be said, on the Forest side, for defender Willy Boly and midfielder Ibrahim Sangare. Meanwhile striker Chris Wood is also unavailable, due to a long term knee injury.
Forest manager Sean Dyche gave this update on Wood just yesterday:
“He has had an op… We had a lot of specialist opinions to try to get him through naturally. But they have decided it is time to go and do it. We are hoping it will be weeks. I don’t like throwing timescales… we will just have to wait and see.”
Paul M. Banks is the Founding Editor of The Sports Bank. He’s also the author of “Transatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America,” and “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry.”
He currently contributes to USA Today’s NFL Wires Network, RG.org and Ratings.org. His past bylines include the New York Daily News, Sports Illustrated and the Chicago Tribune. His work has been featured in numerous outlets, including the Wall Street Journal, Forbes and the Washington Post.