The Everton winger is side-lined just when Ronald Koeman needs him most.
Everton are enduring a terrible run of form, conceding 10 goals in their last three matches without reply, and slipping into the bottom three as a result. But things could have been very different were it not for a cruel injury blow to winger Yannick Bolasie.
The Toffees are crying out for pace, with their newly assembled forward line full of skill but lacking the ability to get in behind opposition defences, and Bolasie would have been the ideal solution.
Hindsight is a wonderful thing in football, and Everton manager Ronald Koeman knew he would be without the 28-year-old for quite some time and should have dealt with that accordingly.
Instead, somewhat inexplicably, he continues to overlook the few pacy players in Everton’s squad – namely Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Ademola Lookman – and his team are struggling as a consequence.
Bolasie missed the second half of last season with a cruciate ligament rupture and is still some way off a return, but he is the player Everton are crying out for.
Had Bolasie been available, the likes of Wayne Rooney and Sandro Ramirez could have benefitted by his ability to act not only as a creative catalyst but also to terrorise defences, hitting on the counter-attack and ensuring Everton were far more of a threat than they currently are.
Given the money Koeman spent at Goodison Park in the summer, it seems unlikely the Everton hierarchy will part company with him just yet, especially when you factor in the teams the Toffees have faced in the early weeks of the campaign.
But in the longer term it could come down to how quickly Bolasie is available. In short, he could be the difference-maker Koeman is crying out for, the one he actually trusts to start week in, week out, yet the one that is – for now at least- frustratingly out of reach.
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