Kevin Campbell believes Dominic Calvert-Lewin's hopes of making England's World Cup squad are all but over after the striker's latest setback during Everton's loss to Leicester City.
The Blues were beaten by two goals at Goodison Park on Saturday evening, courtesy of strikes from Youri Tielemans and Harvey Barnes. Matters were made worse by injuries sustained by Amadou Onana, Idrissa Gueye and Calvert-Lewin, with the latter limping down the tunnel after 'feeling something in his hamstring'.
Everton's No.9 has endured his fair share of injury blows in recent times and only made his return to the first-team in October, having missed the opening eight Premier League fixtures of this campaign. The 25-year-old is now set to undergo a scan to ascertain the seriousness of his hamstring issue.
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With the World Cup fast approaching, Calvert-Lewin may well may face a race against time to be in contention for Gareth Southgate's 26-man squad. Offering his assessment of the likely outcome awaiting the Toffees' talisman in respect of the tournament in Qatar, Campbell told Sky Sports: "Well, he's not going. It was a long shot to start with.
"Calvert-Lewin came back in, played back-to-back games and scored against Crystal Palace, which was great for his confidence. But, unfortunately, he has just not played enough football. Picking up these injuries, I think he needs a stretch of games and time where he plays a certain amount of minutes. You're going to have to manage him a little bit better because he keeps pulling up."
Asked if the World Cup will come at a good time for Everton, the ex-Everton striker added: "Yeah, you could say that. The World Cup is going to allow him to get a lot of training in, recover and then make an assault around Christmas time. They're going to have to keep him ticking over and organise some behind-closed-doors games."
Speaking after Saturday's game, Frank Lampard refused to speculate as to how long Calvert-Lewin could be stuck on the sidelines for. He said: "Dominic's is a hamstring scan on Monday and Onana's is his ankle, he will have a scan on Monday. With Dominic, I don't know, [how serious it is] I don't want to jump that one because I don't know enough about it but he felt something in his hamstring."
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