Michael Keane remains an injury doubt for Everton’s trip to Brentford after he missed the Toffees’ impressive midweek win over Nottingham Forest.
Keane has been virtually ever-present alongside James Tarkowski at the heart of Everton’s defence this season.
The Englishman missed the 1-0 win over Bournemouth at the start of December but returned to David Moyes’s side for their next four fixtures over a busy festive schedule.
However, a fresh injury saw Keane not named in the matchday squad for Tuesday’s visit to the City Ground, with Jake O’Brien moving to centre-back and Nathan Patterson starting for the first time this season at right-back.
Midfielder Charly Alcaraz also missed out against Forest, but Moyes was not keen to divulge any information about the nature of the two injuries.
‘I’m not going to tell you what the injuries are, but obviously they’re both missing the game, so we’re disappointed because it adds to quite a big number at the moment [of players we have out],’ Moyes said pre-match.
The latest absentees did not hamper Everton’s performance on the night, though, as goals from James Garner and Thierno Barry saw Everton record an impressive 2-0 win, which moved them up to eighth in the table.
Everton will look to keep that momentum going when they host Brentford on Sunday, but Moyes remained tight-lipped when asked if Keane or Alcaraz would be back fit for the weekend’s fixture.
‘I’m not giving any details on that just now,’ the Everton boss told reporters post-match.
‘I’ll see how it goes over the next few days.’
Moyes, though, was keen to praise his depleted squad for an impressive away win, which moves them just four points behind Liverpool in fourth.
‘I think [it’s] one of the better results we’ve had since I’ve come into the job because of how depleted we are,’ Moyes told BBC Sport.
‘We didn’t have enough senior players on the bench to make too many changes.
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‘We defended well and took our moments when we got them. We didn’t play particularly well against Burnley, but today we did.’
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