CRUEL blow for Jarrad

AFTER BEING ON BRINK OF RETURN CENTRE-BACK FACES SPELL ON SIDELINES

- By JOE THOMAS

JARRAD BRANTHWAITE'S latest setback is a cruel blow for Everton with the centre back so close to making his return that plans for his comeback were well advanced.

Having not played a second in the opening two months of the campaign, it was always unlikely he would be thrown into a duel with Manchester City and inform Erling Haaland for his first test after recovering from a hamstring injury picked up around the final game of preseason against Roma.

But genuine consideration was being given to when he could return after a positive international break.

He is back out in the grass and he'll be close for this week", David Moyes said after the cameras stopped filming following the first part of his pre-City press conference on Friday morning. Later that day, the club released images of the 23-year-old in full training from the previous day, Thursday.

It is clear everyone was gearing up for the return of the player Moyes placed at the heart of his summer rebuild. Instead Everton, a club that has become familiar with fate painfully twisting against them across recent, traumatic years, once again must deal with a hammer blow that threatens to undermine their plans for progress.

At the heart of it all is a young player who was set to become a talisman in an historic season for the club that made him the centrepiece of the transition towards the bright, promising future it is hoped the move to Hill Dickinson Stadium and everything that comes with it will bring.

His personal hopes of challenging for England’s World Cup squad next summer a target that was within his reach had he struck form this season now look distant.

There is a belief around Branthwaite that he will do what he has previously done when injury has struck. While the latest hamstring setback has left him devastated, there is already determination to recover and do everything in his power to come back as strong as possible, as quickly as possible.