EVERTON fear Tim Cahill could miss out on the most important week of their season.

Cahill limped off with a calf strain midway through the second half of Tuesday’s Europa League win over Sporting Lisbon.

The Australian is almost certainly out of tomorrow’s Premier League visit of champions Manchester United.

And the midfielder now faces a race against time to be available for next Thursday’s return leg in Portugal, with Everton defending a slender 2-1 advantage.

With the Goodison outfit then ending a difficult month with a trip to Tottenham Hotspur three days later, David Moyes can ill afford to be without the talismanic Cahill as his team aim to bolster their chances of European qualification next season while keeping alive their current Europa League campaign.

Everton are still reeling from the loss of Marouane Fellaini for the next six months, with the Belgian requiring surgery on ankle ligaments damaged during the red-card challenge of Sotirios Kyrgiakos in the Merseyside derby earlier this month.

The 22-year-old had been in the best form of his Goodison career and a driving force behind Everton’s winter revival.

And Sylvain Distin said: “We are all disappointed with the news about Fellaini.

“He is a great guy and obviously a good footballer as well and he was important in the squad.

“But this is why we have a big squad – to prevent these kind of troubles. We have lots of players who can now get into the team but we are disappointed as Marouane is a great footballer.”