EVERTON are still sweating over the fitness of Steven Pienaar – but remain confident the South African does not require an operation.

Pienaar has been on crutches since being caught on the knee by Aaron Mokoena during the 1-0 victory at Portsmouth on Saturday. The midfielder attempted to carry on before admitting defeat to the injury and leaving the field on a stretcher.

With the swelling slow to subside, Pienaar is already a major doubt for Thursday’s Europa League tie in Belarus against BATE Borisov.

But the Goodison medical team are optimistic the in-form South African does not face surgery and a lengthy spell on the sidelines.

“There's no timescale at the moment but hopefully it will only be something short term,” said head physio Mick Rathbone yesterday. “Steven took an almighty knock on the inside of the knee, so he is pretty sore.

“The doctor and I had a good look at him after we flew back from the game at Portsmouth. Then we had another good look at him yesterday and again today. It has slightly improved but it is still very, very sore to touch.

“There's a lot of bruising and a lot of swelling around the area, so we've got him on crutches at the moment.

“It looks like it is just bruised but I am hesitating because it is so hard to examine the knee.

“We have looked at the film to see what happened and how it is today and we are pretty confident it is okay. But it is badly bruised and it's pretty sore, as you can imagine.”