Everton remain confident James Rodriguez can win a race to be fit for this weekend's game with Manchester United.
The Colombian is said to be recovering well from what has only been described as a "small injury" by Carlo Ancelotti.
Ancelotti has yet to go into further details over the injury but the club are still classing it as the haemotoma problem he sustained against Liverpool, and which put him in doubt for the trip to Southampton.
Rodriguez played in that game but was seen holding his left hamstring late on and was ruled out of Sunday's game with Newcastle United - the first league game he's missed since joining the Blues.
Ancelotti, however, was confident that Rodriguez would be ok to face United on Saturday (12:30pm) and the 29-year-old is understood to be making good progress at this stage.
Everton also hope that Ben Godfrey can recover from the tight hamstring that forced him to miss the defeat to Newcastle.
But Ancelotti has a fit-again Jarrad Branthwaite to choose from and Mason Holgate is stepping up his return from a toe problem.
The Everton boss will provide an update on the fitness of captain Seamus Coleman (hamstring) later this week.
