Everton have scheduled a second behind-closed-doors friendly for Leighton Baines next week as the England international edges closer to a competitive comeback.
Baines has been out since May with an ankle ligament injury that required two operations but tested his recovery in a friendly against Preston North End on Tuesday. The left-back scored and produced an assist for Arouna Koné as a strong Everton side, including Leon Osman, Steven Naismith and Aaron Lennon, won 4-3 at the club’s Finch Farm training ground.
The manager, Roberto Martínez, intends to step up the 30-year-old’s rehabilitation with a second run-out next Tuesday, and the defender could be in contention for a Premier League return before the end of the month.
Baines last featured for Everton on 9 May, when an injury against Sunderland ended his season and brought forward plans to operate on a problem that had troubled him throughout the campaign. He was on course for a comeback against Watford on the opening weekend of the season when he aggravated the injury in training two days before the game, prompting a second operation.
Baines said: “The first operation, the ligaments had gone and he [the surgeon] had to take off quite a lot of bone and restructure the surface. He had to reattach the ligaments. The second time, the repair had snapped but there was also another ligament as well, so it was a case of reattaching that ligament. There was no bone work this time but the timescale is the same.”
The England left-back admitted there were psychological aspects to overcome in his recovery given the second problem with the same ankle. He said: “There are aspects of that. It feels good, it feels strong – but then it did last time. I have just got to get on with it and the surgeon said I was only the second person to come back to him in the hundreds of these operations he’s done. He didn’t say who the other person was but did say they were years and years apart – mine were back-to-back. So for it to happen again was freakish.
“I’ve just got to be patient now and not rush and not get frustrated if I’m a bit rusty for a few weeks. I need to take my time.”
