Marco Silva has revealed a small issue with Gylfi Sigurdsson in Everton training this week.
The Blues are preparing to take on Manchester United at Goodison Park on Sunday and will be hoping to continue a strong run of form at home, while also recovering from last weekend's difficult defeat to Fulham.
However, for some of this week at least, those preparations haven't involved one of the club's joint-top scorers.
Silva revealed to the ECHO that Sigurdsson had been struggling with a minor issue earlier this week, but also made clear the Icelandic international is still expected to start.
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The manager said: "Gylfi had a small issue during the week and worked with the team today [Thursday]. He will be able to play for sure, but we'll see how he reacts to the sessions over the next few days."
Silva will be faced with a big decision on Sunday in how to replace Andre Gomes .
The midfielder will be serving the first of his three-match ban , picked up retrospectively following a challenge on Aleksandar Mitrovic against Fulham on Saturday.
The likes of Morgan Schneiderlin , Tom Davies and James McCarthy will all be fighting it out for the vacant position in the starting 11.
And the manager has debated switching his system a little - and knows whoever comes into the side has a big opportunity to prove themselves.
"We always have the possibility as a team to play with a two-one in the middle zone or with a one-two.
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"But we always have a solution, even if the profile of player will be different to Andre.
"It is a good moment for the player who will play in that position to be able to show his quality – Morgan, Tom or James.
"Of course it's a miss for us to not play with Andre, but it's the reality and we have to find a good solution for the team to not feel this miss."
