Dominic Calvert-Lewin was once again a notable absentee for Everton against Southampton at the weekend.
Calvert-Lewin has had a number of fitness issues over the past year and he is yet to play for Everton this season after getting injured in the summer. He had hoped to make his comeback in the trip to St Mary's but was once again unavailable for selection.
And Calvert-Lewin was the latest topic of discussion on our Royal Blue Podcast. Host Connor O’Neill was joined by Joe Thomas, Chris Beesley and Gavin Buckland to talk about the forward's injury problems.
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Responding to a question about the England international, Thomas, kicking things off, said: “I think Sunday’s squad, the Manchester United one, is going to give us insight really into where things are with Dominic Calvert-Lewin.
“Just before the international break, Lampard suggested he might be available for West Ham, but he obviously didn’t make the squad. The idea was that if you don’t risk him there he has another fortnight during the international break to come back even stronger.
“You then look at it and I think, 'if he is 85%, another fortnight could see him at 95%', and you can see the logic there. My concern against West Ham was that he wasn’t even on the bench. I have repeatedly said this, West Ham wasn’t a must-win, but it was a game Eveton could have done with winning.
“You would've thought that if Calvert-Lewin was in the situation in terms of fitness we thought he was at that time, then at least have him on the bench for the option of the last 10 or 15 minutes. Surely it is an option that if available Lampard would have turned to and then not used if he didn’t need to, but he decided against that.
“The build-up to the game against Southampton, and speaking to Frank on Thursday, he played down the likelihood of Calvert-Lewin’s involvement. It wasn’t as if Calvert-Lewin is going to come back and start against Southampton, it was more whether he was going to be on the bench.
“Obviously he wasn’t and that is definitely a concern because we know Everton aren’t blessed with options going forward. They don’t really have a target man up top. I know Rondon is available, but it is clear that Lampard only wants to play Rondon in certain moments.
“You can see Everton would benefit from having somebody a lot more clinical at the top. Not just a target man but a natural goalscorer, like Calvert-Lewin is. So there is no question that if he was available to play Frank Lampard would want to play him from the first opportunity he could.
“I can understand, especially given Calvert-Lewin’s injury record over the last 18 months, given how big these next six weeks are going to be for the club, and how gruelling it is going to be, I can understand why until now Calvert-Lewin hasn’t been risked.
“I’m not looking at this at the minute and thinking complete panic stations, but if he doesn't get in the squad against Manchester United on Sunday then I think my concerns would be there and would step up the next level because you if are in a situation where pre-West Ham Lampard is thinking he is in contention, then a fortnight later he doesn't make it onto the bench, then I think that would suggest his recovery hasn’t quite been as complete as we hoped it would be, or there are still concerns there about getting him back on the pitch. We will have to wait and see on Sunday, but is it not ideal.”
Beesley then joined the debate, and said: “I saw him in the final pre-season friendly at Goodison and he looked as good as he had in a long time. He got himself on the scoresheet with a header from [James] Tarkowski’s ball upfield and it was a really smart finish. We were all thinking he’s back to his best after what had been a really frustrating stop start season for him last year.
“Then a month to six weeks out with what Frank Lampard described as a 'freak' injury before the Chelsea game. But how many 'freak' injuries can you keep having?
"I don’t blame Frank Lampard’s stance on this, he’s doing the right thing because it could be all too easy for the manager to get you back out there. We needed a result against West Ham United and Everton still needed their first Premier League win. You couldn’t have blamed the manager for pushing the player out there.
“However, Frank has seen the bigger picture, which he often has done. You look at last season when people would say, 'is this a huge game? Do you need to win it?' He would say, 'no, look at the bigger picture'.
“And he is doing that with Dominic Calvert-Lewin, because he is probably thinking that you want to get him back as soon as possible and back onto the pitch and on the scoresheet, but is he going to break down again?
“I think Lampard is doing the correct thing and he is probably thinking if we keep him until he is right, we will have him for a long period of time.”
Before Buckland added: “If he comes back is it just a matter of time before he gets injured again? We spoke about this the other week about how players all of a sudden just become injury prone. There is not a lot you can do about it.
“I get Joe’s point about if he is missing at the weekend then there would be alarm bells. The frustrating thing for me is that if in a couple of weeks he comes back, in four weeks you have got five weeks off because of the World Cup.
“You are losing any momentum. That is the thing now with Calvert-Lewin, he is in that [Yerry] Mina territory even if comes back on Sunday, for how long? And that is the concern for me.”
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