David Moyes has shared an update on the availability of two Everton players for the clash with Nottingham Forest on Saturday.
The Blues bounced back from losing their nine-match unbeaten streak in the Premier League in the 1-0 loss to Liverpool (2 April) to secure a 1-1 draw with Arsenal (5 April).
The Scotsman will be hoping to continue the strong finish to the campaign at the City Ground (12 April), although it will not be an easy task.
The hosts are fighting for a Champions League qualification spot and Moyes’ job may have been made harder after a new update from Finch Farm.
Moyes confirms Lindstrom blow for Everton
Dwight McNeil made his comeback from injury in a three-minute cameo against the Gunners and is expected to feature again on Saturday.
Therefore, Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Jesper Lindstrom are the only potential absentees, other than Orel Mangala, who is already out for the season.
In a major blow, Lindstrom is now likely to miss the rest of the season.
Moyes gave an update on their progress in his pre-match press conference (11 April), saying: “Dom is out on the grass and he is training well, I think because it’s been a hamstring injury, we’ll try to follow all the protocols and not bring him back too quickly.
“I think roughly we’ve got another three weeks on Dom before we’re even probably talking about him getting into, I don’t know about full-time training or actually games yet, but we certainly think we’ve got three weeks before we can start mentioning him.
“Unfortunately, Jesper has had a hernia operation yesterday, that’ll rule Jesper out for the most of the season now. That is disappointing for him and for us because he had started to show some decent form in the last month or so.”
Everton can secure a statement win against Forest
The Toffees’ form under Moyes has been remarkable. They have lost just one of their last 11 league matches, which has left Paul Merson stunned.
However, only four of those results were wins, with six draws in that period, which takes a little bit of sparkle off of the Blues’ impressive run.
| Premier League | Played | GD | Points |
| 14. Tottenham | 31 | +13 | 37 |
| 15. Everton | 31 | -5 | 35 |
| 16. West Ham | 31 | -17 | 35 |
They need to find a way to turn one point into three on a regular basis if they are to push further up the league next season, and they can start by sending a message against Nuno Espirito Santo’s side.
It would be a major scalp if the Toffees could beat Europe-chasing Forest, and would signal to the rest of the league that they mean business ahead of Moyes being backed in the transfer market in the summer.
It will be a tough ask but Moyes’ side have shown that they can contend with the elite teams after taking the league leaders to the wire twice, while also holding the Gunners on both occasions, so they should take a bit of confidence into this clash.
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