Frank Lampard will start the season without a key player in his Everton squad.
Everton have confirmed Dominic Calvert-Lewin will stay out of action for ‘up to six weeks’ due to a knee injury.
The England international sustained the injury in training, missing out on his side’s start to the Premier League campaign.
“Losing a player like Dominic, his quality, in the week going into the first game is obviously going to affect you,” the former Chelsea midfielder told reporters.
“I think we’re probably looking at around six weeks for the injury. It comes with the territory of training at this level.”
Calvert-Lewin spent a good chunk of the last season on the sidelines. However, his return to Lampard’s squad in the latter stages of the season was key to their successful bid to stay in the English top flight.
Speaking about dealing with Calvert-Lewin’s absence, Lampard added: “We’ll have to work around it.
Other players will have to step up and hopefully that six weeks passes relatively quickly and we’ll get Dominic back.”
“Through pre-season, we were constantly commenting on how good he looked, strong, we were really pleased so it’s a knock for everybody, particularly for him.”
Everton will face Chelsea in their Premier League opener next Saturday.