Everton could be without rising midfield star Ross Barkley for several weeks due to a foot injury, manager Roberto Martinez revealed on Saturday.
The 20-year-old England international sustained a suspected broken toe in last weekend’s FA Cup win over Queens Park Rangers and sat out Saturday’s 2-0 defeat of Norwich City in the Premier League.
“We are going to assess him and it seems he is going to be out for a while. It could be broken,” Martinez said.
“We are going to assess it to see if there was displacement or not. It is a very similar incident to the one Leighton Baines had. Before we say exactly what it is, that is the fear, that there could be a fracture in his toe.”
Everton left-back Baines spent a month out of action prior to Christmas after picking up a similar injury.
Despite Barkley’s injury, Martinez revealed that he would join the rest of the squad for a warm-weather training camp on the Spanish island of Tenerife next week.
“Knowing Ross, being a young man, hopefully with the sun, a bit of Vitamin D intake, it will accelerate the (healing) process,” said the Everton manager.
Barkley has been one of the breakthrough stars of the current Premier League season and has been tipped for a place in the England squad for the World Cup in Brazil.
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