Everton fear lengthy lay-off for injured Vaughan

Jul 19 2007 by Chris Beesley, Liverpool Daily Post

EVERTON assistant manager Alan Irvine fears that James Vaughan could be out “for months rather than weeks” after the 19-year-old striker dislocated his shoulder just 15 minutes into last night’s 1-1 draw in a friendly at Preston.

The youngster was carried off three minutes after Simon Whaley had put the Championship side ahead but despite an equaliser 10 minutes from time by Victor Anichebe, Everton, who fly out on a pre-season tour of the USA today, are now facing up to the prospect of not having their talented youngster available for a considerable portion of the forthcoming campaign.

Irvine said after last night’s game: “It looks like James has dislocated his shoulder which is a nasty injury. It will keep him out for months rather than weeks. We’ll find out more about it tomorrow.

“Obviously it’s a blow to the lad, he was looking fit.

“The report I read from Saturday’s game in Northern Ireland suggested he was really ready to go (for the season).

“He’s been away with the England Under 21s and that’s kept him sharper than some of the other lads ahead of the start of the season.”

Due to Vaughan’s busy schedule, Irvine revealed that Everton had actually given Vaughan the chance to take a breather while they headed out for a game in Salt Lake City and training in Los Angeles but the youngster wanted to keep on playing.

He said: “We offered him time off while we went to the USA but he was desperate to come. He obviously won’t be coming now so it’s a shame.

“I couldn’t believe he had picked up such an injury, it was the sort of the challenge you see time after time.

“He must have fell awkwardly with Youl Mawene but there was nothing in it.”

Despite his tender years, Vaughan, who is the Premier League’s youngest goalscorer, has already had to battle back from a long term knee injury which kept him out for more than a year so Irvine hopes the Birmingham-born player’s luck will change soon.

He said: “Vaughany’s only had a short career so far so hopefully this will be his last injury. He was looking good last season and was continuing to look good through the summer.”

Everton’s squad has already been hit by a series of niggles less than a week into their pre-season playing schedule and Irvine admits

that there has been no cutting corners when it comes to working on the players fitness.

He said: “Our priority with it being our second match was fitness and it was pleasing that another 90 minutes were played by a lot of our players.

“We’re a bit stretched at the moment with a smaller squad and quite a few injuries so we had to ask a lot of our players to go through 90 minutes which they did.

“We’ve not been too sympathetic in terms of the training we’ve been doing, we’ve worked them very hard so it’s not that they’ve come into the game very fresh.

“They showed their fitness and their character to keep going, particularly when they saw another team coming on at half-time, that makes it a bit harder.”

Irvine was pleased with the performance of Everton’s only major summer recruit to date, Phil Jagielka, a £4million signing from Sheffield United, who made his debut at centre-back, replacing Alan Stubbs at half-time.

The utility man who has returned to the club he played for as a junior, went close to marking his first senior appearance in a royal blue jersey with a goal when he connected well with a header from a Mikel Arteta corner kick.

Irvine said: “He’s got a goal return which is something that could be very useful. He could have possibly scored with one of his headers but couldn’t quite get enough on it.”

Irvine was unable to shed any new light on Everton’s potential buys, Johann Vogel and Steven Pienaar.

Former PSV Eindhoven and Milan midfielder Vogel, 30, was with Real Betis last season and it was thought that Everton were set to sign him on a free transfer but reports in Spain yesterday suggested the Spanish club may now be demanding some sort of fee.

Negotiations for South African Pienaar are continuing with his club Borussia Dortmund and it is believed that the Germans could agree to an initial loan move ahead of a potential full transfer at a later date.