More good news (and an injury update) on Vaughan
Everton striker James Vaughan set to return for Blackburn Rovers game
Aug 14 2008 by
Nick Smith, Liverpool Daily Post
James Vaughan 320
EVERTON are hoping James Vaughan can recover from a foot injury to face Blackburn Rovers – and avoid being left with just 11 senior players.
Vaughan has escaped suspension for the opening game of the Premier League season at Goodison Park following his sending-off against Chicago Fire in last month’s friendly.
But the striker is fighting to be fit enough to add to David Moyes’s options up front – with Yakubu currently the only forward available to him.
The Everton manager is still working on landing targets Vagner Love and Alan Smith to boost his foward line, but he is still to announce his first signing of the summer.
It leaves him barely able to name a starting XI, which as it stands would include 17-year-old Jack Rodwell, who has less than 20 minutes of first team experience behind him.
Vaughan hasn’t played since he was red-carded in injury time of the game in Chicago for a reckless late challenge and he was missing from the side that drew with PSV Eindhoven last Saturday – but he has got over the worst of the injury problems that have dogged him for the past year.
On the second leg of Everton’s tour of the USA, he was given the all-clear by a specialist in Denver to resume playing senior football following his recovery from a knee operation.
He would be unlikely to be risked from the start against Blackburn but could find himself on the bench if only to make the numbers up.
Vaughan should then be available to face West Bromwich Albion in Everton’s first away game a week on Saturday because even if he was to receive a suspension, it wouldn’t come into effect for another two weeks.
The US Soccer Federation has not submitted a referee’s report from the Chicago Fire game to the FA, which mean they can’t take any action against the player.
But Vaughan’s latest injury setback is a further blow at a time when Moyes is in dire need of firepower after selling Andrew Johnson and losing Victor Anichebe to the Olympics.