Everton: £15m star suffers 'major injury setback' at Goodison Park | OneFootball

Everton star James Garner has suffered a ‘major setback’ which will have an impact on the second half of his first season at Goodison Park, according to injury expert Ben Dinnery.

The midfielder was among the acquisitions when Toffees boss Frank Lampard spent close to £70million during the summer transfer window, as per Transfermarkt, but he is set for a lengthy spell on the sidelines.

Everton injury news – James Garner

The Premier League season may have been put on pause due to the World Cup currently taking place in Qatar, but Everton have still suffered a number of injury blows.

Speaking to Evertontv, Lampard has confirmed that Garner could be out of action until early February due to a back problem, while Tom Davies has been forced to leave the Toffees’ tour to Australia and Yerry Mina has picked up a hamstring issue.

The Liverpool Echo have revealed Garner could face a further 10 weeks out after specialists assessed the injury, which resulted in him being absent from the squad that travelled to Australia for the Sydney Super Cup.

It is a major blow for the 21-year-old, who completed a September switch from Manchester United worth £15million, according to Sky Sports.

Garner made the move to Merseyside having enjoyed last season on loan with Nottingham Forest, where he won promotion to the Premier League via the Championship play-offs.

What has Ben Dinnery said about Garner?

Dinnery believes Garner’s injury could not have come at a worse time as he was just beginning to stake a claim for a regular starting spot at Everton.

The injury news journalist feels the back problem will have a knock-on effect as the nine-cap England under-21 international attempts to make a name for himself at Goodison Park in the early stages of 2023.

Dinnery told GIVEMESPORT: “The difficulty is that he is a player who recently arrived at the club and just managed to get himself back in contention in terms of his fitness, having missed a lot of football before that.

“This major setback is going to really affect him for the second half of the season.”

How has Garner performed so far this season?

Although The Athletic claim Everton beat the likes of Southampton, Leicester City and Tottenham Hotspur to Garner’s signature during the summer transfer window, he has still found his opportunities limited.

The defensive midfielder has been restricted to just 188 minutes of action in his new surroundings, as per Transfermarkt, but he has still racked up some promising underlying numbers.

According to Sofascore, Garner has averaged one tackle and 0.7 interceptions, along with 81 per cent pass accuracy, per Premier League outing this season.

FBref statistics show that he has also made more tackles, interceptions and got away a greater number of shots per 90 minutes than fellow summer signing Idrissa Gueye since the campaign got underway, further emphasising that his presence will be missed by Everton.