Carlo Ancelotti has confirmed James Rodriguez is one of a trio of players ruled out of Everton's match against Chelsea this weekend.
The summer signing instantly fashioned a role for himself as one of the most important players in the Blues squad following his transfer from Real Madrid, hitting the ground running with a series of brilliant displays.
However, after picking up a problem against Burnley, the Everton manager confirmed that the playmaker would sit out of Saturday's match at Goodison Park.
Rodriguez will join Seamus Coleman and Fabian Delph on the sidelines - with Lucas Digne and Jean-Philippe Gbamin still absent too.
Ancelotti told his pre-Chelsea press conference: "We have three players not available, one is Coleman.
"He started this week to train with the team, he's quite good but I think that he will be available for the next game against Leicester on Wednesday.
"We have Delph out, who suffered an injury against Burnley.
"We have James out, who had a little problem in the game against Burnley. He was not able to train this week, I think he will start to train next week.
"For this game, we don't want to take a risk."
When asked further on the problem to James, Ancelotti confirmed that it was "nothing special".
However, the Blues will check on the playmaker following this weekend's match to see if he will be available for the trip to Leicester in midweek.
"He had a charge on his muscle after the game, on his calf, after the game against Burnley. Nothing special, he was not able to train," he added.
"I don't want to take a risk with a player who was not able to train this week. We have to look at him after the game to see if he will be able to train and play against Leicester.
Everton will be missing a number of important players for what is a big match against Frank Lampard's side this weekend.
However, Ancelotti believes his squad will still have a lot of confidence heading into the fixture.
The boss remarked: "I'm not used to complaining about the players who are not available. The players who are available trained well and are in good condition.
"We understand that there will be an important moment and test, not only tomorrow but in this period of December.
"So I think we arrive at the game with confidence and motivation."
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