Everton's James Vaughan told to focus on next season

Mar 25 2008

James Vaughan (158)

DAVID MOYES has promised to give James Vaughan all the time he needs so he can return from injury in prime physical and mental condition.

Having had an operation to cure a cartilage problem two weeks ago, Moyes has no intention of rushing the youngest goalscorer in Everton’s history back to play a couple of games before the end of the season.

Vaughan has endured so many fitness problems in the last couple of years that Moyes is loathe to jeopardise his rehabilitation and believes the biggest challenge the 19-year-old faces is coming to terms psychologically with everything he has been through.

That is why Everton’s manager will wrap Vaughan up in cotton wool for the time being and hopes that approach will reap dividends next season when he can hopefully fulfil his vast potential.

“He is quite a tough boy mentally but this hasn’t been a bad knee operation,” said Moyes. “It’s just been a little procedure to cure his cartilage.

“Because of his history, he’s going to have a bit longer time to recover. Let’s be fair, with only six weeks of the season to go, it would have been quite tight for him to get back anyway.

“But we need to make sure that we look after him correctly. I have always known that will be the case. I said a couple of years ago when he had that first injury, we needed to watch him.

“He missed a lot of his development period and that for me is the only real disappointment as he would have helped us just now.

“His enthusiasm would have played a big part for us. We will miss him and we can’t just be relying on Yak. The goals have got to come from other areas, not just the forwards.”

The aspect of Vaughan’s play which sets him apart is his willingness to run the extra mile and the spark he gives his team-mates. It may have contributed to some of his fitness issues but Moyes says it would be folly to try and curb that hunger.

“The one thing we would never try to change is his enthusiasm,” Moyes said. “His attitude is the reason he has got a great chance of being a Premier League footballer for a long time.

“We need to couple that with getting him experience in games. We did consider at times about whether he should go out on loan.

“But, really, the best experience we felt was to be around the first team here. We need to look at how he plays and what he does, so we can protect him a little bit.

“I can’t alter his style because that’s the way he is and I wouldn’t want him to change it either.”