Of Monday’s game, Moyes added: “Leighton will certainly be involved. He will be in the squad. He came into the side and did okay in the games he played. I had to try and find a way of getting some results and that’s why I went back to the boys who played in defence last year. It has given us a solid base.

“But Leighton is a good player and I have got to say he has trained very well and got on with his work. He is doing himself no harm at the minute.”

Another player who has not seen much first-team action during the past few weeks is James Vaughan.

Since starting the home defeat to Portsmouth in August, the competition for places in attack has meant the 20-year-old has played less than an hour of Premier League football.

Nevertheless, Vaughan’s undoubted promise earned him a recall to the England under-21s with the forward playing 86 minutes of the 2-0 win over the Czech Republic on Tuesday.

And while happy the striker has more action under his belt, Moyes has no immediate plans to allow the player to go out on loan.

“He has been playing in the reserves and I don’t have the numbers in the squad to let him out on loan – not at this present moment in time anyway,” said Moyes. “I was pleased that he got in for the under-21s and I was also pleased that he got another good standard game. What we want to do is keep bringing him on and bringing him up to speed as much as we can.”

Everton are hopeful Marouane Fellaini can shake off the groin problem that forced him out of Belgium’s friendly against Luxembourg in midweek. However, it’s unlikely Steven Pienaar will be fit as he struggled to overcome the knee injury he aggravated last Sunday.