Jarrad Branthwaite injury: Everton suffer nightmare blow just days before season

Jarrad Branthwaite signed a new contract at Everton over the summer, but he will miss the opening few weeks of the new season after aggravating a hamstring injury

Everton defender Jarrad Branthwaite will miss the start of the season after suffering a hamstring injury days before his side’s Premier League opener at Leeds.

Centre-back Branthwaite, 23, was forced to limp out of training after suffering an injury to his right hamstring, the same area he injured in Everton’s final game at Goodison Park against Southampton in May.

The Mail report that Branthwaite could be sidelined until the end of September, causing him to miss the first six games of the new Premier League season – including a Merseyside derby at Anfield – as well as Everton’s Carabao Cup second round tie at home to Mansfield.

Branthwaite, who picked up his so far only England cap last year, is also likely to be forced out of contention for Thomas Tuchel’s Three Lions squad next month, when they face Andorra and Serbia in World Cup qualifiers.

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Branthwaite had been attracting interest from several Premier League sides prior to signing a new contract at Everton this summer, and is seen as a key figure in David Moyes’ side ahead of their first season at their new Hill Dickinson Stadium.

Fellow centre-back James Tarkowski underwent hamstring surgery earlier this summer and has been eased back into action over pre-season, with Jake O’Brien and Michael Keane also still on the books at the club.

Moyes was already keen to add a new centre-back to his squad this summer prior to Branthwaite’s injury, with the Scot still desperate for more faces to add to his squad after bringing in midfielders Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and Jack Grealish.

Speaking on the club’s pre-season tour of the US, Moyes said: “We’ve got huge priorities as far as where we would like to try and buy the players if we could do.

“But also, we’ve got a numbers situation as well, we’re short in numbers, so there’s a bit of both. We’re trying to get the pieces we really want first, and that’s what we’ve been fighting to do. So hopefully we can, hopefully things will fall into place.

“But we’re just beginning to think, my goodness, we’re just not getting enough over the line.

“Because we are actively working to try [and] it’s not as if we’re a club who are saying [that] we’re waiting to sell a player before we can bring one in. But it’s not really the situation. We’ve got money to spend, and we’ll have to try and spend it wisely.”

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