Expert issues crushing update on Everton star James Garner
James Garner will be aiming to return to full fitness in three or four weeks but the Everton midfielder is at constant risk of suffering a negative reaction to his back injury.
That is the view of medical expert Ben Dinnery, who spoke exclusively to Football Insider about the recovery progress of Everton’s 21-year-old midfielder.
After struggling to break through at Manchester United, Garner made a £15million switch to Everton in the summer in hopes of improving his game time.
However it’s not quite gone to plan for the Merseyside-born midfielder, who finds himself in the treatment room at Goodison Park after suffering a lower back injury.
Frank Lampard labelled the injury “disappointing” before the winter break (November 24), with Garner just starting to make progress with the Toffees before being sent to the sidelines.
Dinnery believes Garner is three or four weeks away from making his return at Everton but admitted that the nature of his injury makes it hard to paint an accurate timeline.
“It has come at a very unfortunate time for the young midfielder – it seems like he was just breaking into that Everton side,” Dinnery told Football Insider‘s Sean Fisher.
“The problem we have with giving any definitive timeline is that it’s a stress-related response to the lower back which is a loading issue.
“These injuries are looked at with week-to-week and even day-to-day monitoring.
“So that initial timeline was created in the hope that Garner could return late January or early February but with these types of injuries you can train for three or four days without any pain and then suddenly you have a reaction and you have to ease back a step or two.
“The target will be the next three or four weeks but the reality is that Garner may have to hold back a little bit, which could hinder him getting back up to a speed where he can really affect Everton’s performance in the Premier League.
“That won’t be easy considering we’re in the belly of the season and opportunities will be hard to come by.“
In other news, Everton may have found a Dominic Calvert-Lewin replacement after ‘brilliant’ news