DAVID MOYES is braced for a difficult evening in Athens after Sylvain Distin intensified Everton’s defensive injury headache.

The French centre-back is considered a major doubt with a hamstring problem ahead of the Europa League clash with Greek side AEK Athens tonight.

With the similarly hamstrung Joseph Yobo back on Merseyside and both Lucas Neill and John Heitinga ineligible, Moyes was already poised to revert right-back Tony Hibbert to an emergency centre-back role.

And with 17-year-old Northern Ireland under-21 international Shane Duffy and German teenager Shkodran Mustafi his only other available central defenders, the Goodison manager admits he may now have to hand either a full debut should Distin be ruled out.

“Sylvain is a doubt, he has a hamstring problem, so we could be without two centre-backs,” said Moyes. “We’ll have to wait and see how it goes.

“Joseph Yobo is obviously not here, and there have been a few trips where he’s not been here and we’ve had to make do and mend with the likes of Tony Hibbert and Phil Neville at centre-back, and it looks as though we’ll have to do the same again.

“This is what makes the game even more difficult. People can talk about us winning only one of our last 11 games, but tomorrow we might have some younger members of the squad in there.

“We could have a really young centre-back playing depending on how Distin is.”

As well as Distin, Everton have concerns over the fitness of Jack Rodwell, who is still troubled by the groin problem that forced him to miss Sunday’s Merseyside derby.

But Moyes is hopeful Louis Saha can start in attack after missing yesterday’s morning training session.

Victory this evening would move Everton to within a point of qualification to the last 32, although should Benfica also beat BATE Borisov in Group I’s other fixture, progress will be assured with a game to spare.

AEK were thrashed 4-0 at Goodison earlier in the competition but have proven a much sterner proposition

in the 71,000-capacity Olympic Stadium, having beaten group leaders Benfica at home.

“We have watched AEK, we’ve watched their performances since we played them,” said Moyes. “They may well change their tactics. But we can only concentrate on ours and how we think is the best way to win. It doesn’t matter that we beat them 4-0 in the first game, no win is easy. We always have to work hard for it.