David Moyes set to receive triple fitness boost

Oct 10 2007 by Ian Doyle, Liverpool Daily Post

DAVID MOYES could be handed a triple fitness tonic this week – after discovering the latest stage of Everton’s European adventure yesterday.

Tim Cahill, Thomas Gravesen and James Vaughan are all poised to take the next step in their return to fitness.

Cahill is set for a scan in the hope of being given the green light to resume full training as he recovers from the foot injury that has dogged him since March. The Australian missed the final three months of last season with a broken metatarsal and has since been sidelined again after suffering damage in the same area of the foot during the Goodison friendly with Werder Bremen in July.

A recovering Cahill was last month given the go-ahead to begin running. And if the news from the latest scan is similarly encouraging, the midfielder could be in contention for a dramatic comeback in the Goodison derby against Liverpool on Saturday week. Both Gravesen and Vaughan are expected to return to training this week having been sidelined with knee and shoulder injuries respectively.

Gravesen, who has made just one substitute appearance since arriving on a season-long loan from Celtic, has been absent since taking a knock in training and subsequently required fluid to be drained from his knee.

Like Cahill, the Denmark midfielder may also force his way into the reckoning for the derby, although the game will come too soon for Vaughan.

The striker was ruled out until November at the earliest after sustaining a dislocated shoulder in the pre-season friendly at Preston in July. And given Vaughan’s history of injury problems, Everton have no intention of rushing him back into action.

Meanwhile, yesterday’s draw for the group stage of the UEFA Cup handed Everton a tricky task to qualify for the last 32. Moyes’s side have been placed in Group A alongside Dutch side AZ Alkmaar, Zenit St Petersberg of Russia, Germany’s FC Nurnberg and Greek outfit Larissa.

The five teams will play each other once – two games at home and two away – with the top three progressing to the knockout stages.

Everton begin at home to Larissa on Thursday, October 25 before travelling to face Nurnberg on Thursday, November 8. They then entertain Zenit on Wednesday, December 5 before finishing with a trip to Holland to play Alkmaar on Thursday, December 20.

The fixture schedule could cause a headache for the Goodison side. Should Moyes’s men beat Luton Town in the Carling Cup later this month, the quarter-finals are due to be held on the same night as the home game with Zenit. The Carling Cup game would then most likely be brought forward to November. But if Everton were drawn in the last eight against Chelsea, Arsenal or Liverpool, Champions League commitments would mean the tie almost certainly being held over until 2008.