With Gylfi Sigurdsson possibly out for nine months with a knee injury, have Everton’s fitness problems hindered their form?
Gylfi Sigurdsson was due to have a scan on Monday (March 12) night to assess a knee injury that the midfielder suffered during the 2-0 Premier League victory over Brighton and Hove Albion at the weekend.
A statement from the club confirmed this and said that Sigurdsson could miss “several weeks”, although a report from the Sun claimed that if the 28-year-old required surgery that he could be sidelined for up to nine months.
Losing their club record signing for such a significant amount of time would be a huge blow for the Toffees, but it is hardly something new for a club who could arguably be the unluckiest in this department in the entire division.
Since December 2016 when Yannick Bolasie ruptured his cruciate ligaments in a game against Manchester United, the Merseyside club have had no fewer than four long-term injuries – with Sigurdsson potentially being the fifth.
Bolasie was out for more than a year, as was Ramiro Funes Mori who is still yet to make his first team return after suffering a knee injury representing Argentina in March 2017. Seamus Coleman was out for around ten months after fracturing his leg and James McCarthy is currently recovering from a double leg-break suffered against West Bromwich Albion in January.
Add Sigurdsson to this and it is a fitness problem that most teams would struggle to deal with, so could the club’s poor form under Ronald Koeman and now Sam Allardyce be partly attributed to this?
There are of course other factors, but aside from perhaps Funes Mori the other absentees had been key players prior to their injuries and perhaps Koeman and Allardyce are victims of a problem completely out of their control.
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