Everton have yet to put a timescale on Fabian Delph's return from injury but the Blues won't rush the midfielder back despite an "emergency" at left-back.
Delph pulled his hamstring in the draw with Burnley on Saturday and is now certain to miss this weekend's game with Chelsea at Goodison.
How many more games, the 31-year-old will be absent for beyond that remains to be seen, with the Blues - who performed scans on Delph's injury earlier this week - not yet putting a timescale on his comeback.
But given how the £8.5m signing from Manchester City has been dogged by injury since he joined the club in 2019, the Blues know he may need extra time to return to full fitness.
Delph's absence leaves Carlo Ancelotti with a dilemma at left-back ahead of the visit of free-scoring Chelsea with Ben Godfrey seemingly favourite to fill the role having done so for an hour at Turf Moor.
Ancelotti described having Lucas Digne out and now Delph injured as a "little bit of an emergency".
Delph has played only 27 times for Everton as a succession of muscle issues have plagued his Goodison career.
