Everton have arranged another behind-closed-doors friendly for this week to give more playing time to the likes of Dominic Calvert-Lewin as he nears readiness for Premier League action.
The Blues added a workout at Goodison Park against AC Monza to their pre-season schedule prior to the curtain-raiser against Sporting CP, matches that afforded Calvert-Lewin the chance to play his first minutes since recovering from his latest injury set-back suffered against Wolves in May, and have now set up another one against Manchester United.
The Everton striker played 45 minutes in each friendly but was not included in the match-day squad to face Fulham in the 2023-24 season-opener yesterday because, as Sean Dyche explained afterwards, he had not yet completed his rehabilitation in time.
Dyche suggested in his post-match press conference that Calvert-Lewin’s patient rehab is now over and that he can take the next step towards featuring in a Premier League game this week with the scheduled practice match that will also benefit Vitalii Mykolenko and Arnaut Danjuma who are also short on match fitness.
“We’re playing a game and there’s a number of players, not just Dom, that need to play in that game,” the manager said. “Dom’s different because he’s finishing his rehab but some of the other players need minutes because they need to play having missed chunks of pre-season — Myko and Arnie, people like that, they need football.”
Everton travel to Aston Villa next Sunday for their second match of the new season looking to pick up their first points after the disappointing reverse against Fulham in a game they dominated in terms of chances but failed to convert.