Frank Lampard hopes that Donny van de Beek was only suffering from cramp when he was substituted in the second half of Everton's 1-0 defeat to Man City on Saturday.
The Blues were beaten at Goodison Park thanks to Phil Foden's strike in the second half, despite being controversially denied a penalty after Rodri looked to have handled the ball inside the penalty area.
The hosts lined up with three central midfielders as Van de Beek was joined by Allan and Abdoulaye Doucoure in the centre of the pitch.
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Midway through the second period, after needing some treatment inside his own box, the former Ajax man was replaced by fellow deadline day signing Dele.
But, Lampard has offered the hope that his issue didn't seem to be a bad one, although full confirmation of that assessment is still to come.
The Everton manager remarked: "We hope it's cramp, that's our hope.
"I don't want to completely commit to that, but we hope it is. He said he felt like it wasn't so bad.
"I thought he played really well, he put in a big shift.
"From him not playing many games to coming in and playing a few games for us, cramp is understandable.
"We just hope it's not worse than that."
