Everton have been handed a huge blow ahead of the weekend's Premier League opening match against Chelsea as Frank Lampard confirmed Dominic Calvert-Lewin would miss the game due to injury.
The Blues start their campaign with a trip to Goodison Park, where they have won just once in the past eight trips including a shock 1-0 defeat last season.
Chelsea will be able to boast new signings Raheem Sterling and Kalidou Koulibaly whilst the Toffees will be without their talismanic striker, giving Thomas Tuchel something less to think about as he prepares to use a defence without Antonio Rudiger or Andreas Christensen.
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Lampard confirmed that Everton's joint second top-scorer from last season, Calvert-Lewin, would miss nearly two months of the new season with a "freak" injury.
Lampard told reporters: "We're probably looking at around six weeks on the injury, I saw a lot of crazy rumours yesterday. We have to work around it and other players will have to step up and do the job."
The 25-year-old scored five goals last season in a disappointing return for the England international, though they came in just 17 appearances as he was plagued by injury. Lampard had previously thought that his striker would miss the game, saying earlier this week: "We are assessing Dom’s injury. No timeframe has been confirmed and we are pretty sure what level it is, so we are hopeful it is not long term. We’ll miss him for Chelsea. He was looking in great physical condition and was training really well.
"It was a freak injury in training, which does happen. It’s a shame but we have to find the solutions to keep ourselves strong without Dominic before he returns."
The former Blues player and manager also confirmed the absence of two more first team players, adding: "Tom Davies should be training with us next week. Andre's a week or two away. Asmir (Begovic) is just about fit. Seamus Coleman is fit. He's going to play for the Under-21s tomorrow night to get some minutes."
Everton had a disjointed pre-season, losing matches to Minnesota and Arsenal during their main tour of America and Lampard will also be without Richarlison, who scored the winner at Goodison against Chelsea last season, after his transfer to Tottenham this summer.
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