Right-back where we started from?

BLUES KEEPING OPEN MIND BUT THERE'S NO QUICK CURE FOR DFEFENSIVE SORE POINT

- By JOE THOMAS

EVERTON are understood to be keeping their options open when it comes to the search for a new right-back.

The position has been a troublesome one for the Blues for several years amid the injuries suffered by Seamus Coleman and Nathan Patterson.

That has not changed this season with the club captain Coleman currently out with a hamstring issue and his teammate having gone under the knife for a hernia problem.

That area is, therefore, one of Everton’s transfer priorities, and the club is open to doing business if a suitable opportunity comes along.

That, so far, has not been the case and recent reports linking Ben White and Emil Holm with a move to Hill Dickinson Stadium are understood to simply be speculation.

Patterson has returned to action in recent weeks, starting at Nottingham Forest in the Premier League and then on Saturday, when he lasted deep into extra-time in the FA Cup defeat to Sunderland.

That was some achievement for the 24-year-old, who only recently returned from hernia surgery and was withdrawn just after the hour mark in the win at the City Ground as his first taste of senior football since that operation caught up with him.

While his performance at the weekend was heralded by the club's social media profile, which noted on Monday that he won seven duels and provided six crosses across his 116 minutes, his return has not stopped the club from assessing potential targets.