Martinez has suggested that the defender could be back for the game against Sunderland in May.
Everton boss Roberto Martinez hopes to have left-back Bryan Oviedo available for selection for the start of next month and ready for the closing stages of the season, the club’s official website reports.
Oviedo returned this season from a horrific broken leg sustained in the FA Cup in January last year, but has managed to make a total of just 12 appearances so far this term. His progression was hampered somewhat when, in February, he picked up a hamstring injury during a Europa League clash with Young Boys.
Martinez said: “I expect him [Oviedo] to be training at the end of this week, so we are probably looking at two or three weeks before he is back – maybe the Sunderland game.
“It was a bad injury. The tendon got a bad tear. It wasn’t a pull in the belly of the muscle, it was a tear right on the tendon, really high up.”
Oviedo is certainly a useful squad player for the Toffees, as has been proved when the 25-year-old has stood in for first-choice left-back Leighton Baines.
It will do the Costa Rica international good to get some minutes under his belt when he returns to action. Martinez expects Oviedo to return against Sunderland, so that means he could play three more games this term.
If he gets a decent amount of competitive playing time before the campaign comes to a close, as well as getting a solid pre-season behind him, then he could be approaching something like his best next term.
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