Football

Everton frustrated by Yerry Mina returning from Colombia duty injured


Marco Silva has said Everton warned Colombia not to overload Yerry Mina before the £28m defender suffered a hamstring injury that will consign him to another extended spell on the sidelines.

Everton’s summer signing from Barcelona was taken off on a stretcher in Colombia’s friendly defeat in South Korea on Tuesday. Scans have confirmed he faces several weeks out.

The 24-year-old has made only 12 Premier League appearances in a debut season blighted by injury and, after he played all of the 2-0 defeat of Chelsea before the international break, his club’s medical staff advised their Colombian counterparts against starting him in both their matches. Instead, Mina played the full 90 minutes against Japan last Friday and started for Carlos Queiroz’s team in Seoul four days later.

The Everton manager said: “It is not good news. It is serious. Bad news for us as a club and for him too. It has not been an easy season for him since he joined the club; he’s had some unlucky moments and some bad injuries. We knew before he went to the international team that it could have been a risk to play two matches. We communicated this to them but we cannot control their decisions. We advised them after he played 90 minutes against Chelsea that it was a risk to play him in two matches in a short period.”

Silva insisted the central defender should be available before the end of the season but with the on-loan Kurt Zouma the preferred partner for Michael Keane, his opportunities to impress will be limited. “He is not out for the season,” he said. “Let’s see how many weeks it will be but I expect Mina training again with us and playing in a blue shirt again before the end of the season.”

Silva denies Everton erred when signing the player after the World Cup. Mina missed the first three months of the season with a foot injury sustained while a Barcelona player. “I disagree with you in this situation,” he said. “Look at how much Bayern Munich spent on a left-back from Atlético Madrid [Lucas Hernández] with a problem. They spent €80m because of his quality. Maybe it is a completely different situation.

“It was not so clear for us that the player was injured. We spent the money because we believe in what he can do as a football player. When he joined our club we saw he had a problem which stopped him for two months and his adaptation.”



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