Lewis Gibson could be ready for a first-team debut at Everton but the Toffees will need special dispensation if they want to field the talented teenager during the final few weeks of the 2019/20 campaign, as reported by The Guardian.
Not for the first time this season, the lack of defensive cover at Goodison Park has been brutally exposed.
Colombia international Yerry Mina has started 23 Premier League games under Marco Silva and Carlo Ancelotti in recent months – but he is very unlikely to add to that tally with a torn thigh muscle making him persona non grata when ‘Project Re-start’ gets underway.
That means Ancelotti has just two senior centre-backs to call upon – Mason Holgate and the ever-erratic Michael Keane.
It would be the logical solution, then, to promote England youth star Gibson into the first-team squad for the time being.
But with the Guardian pointing out that he has a loan contract with Fleetwood Town until the end of June, Everton will need to obtain ‘special dispensation’ in order to register him for Premier League football.
A classy and commanding 19-year-old, Everton invested a giant £6 million fee to sign the teenager from Newcastle United in 2017.
Gibson has not yet made his first-team debut for the Toffees but that could soon change. As Fleetwood boss Joey Barton has been at pains to point out, this is a Premier League player in the making.
“Lewis Gibson looks like a top-level player in the making if he keeps progressing and learning,” Everton-mad Barton told the Blackpool Gazette of a defender who can also play at left-back.
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