Everton boss Marco Silva has confirmed midfielder Morgan Schneiderlin will be staying at Everton, with the Portuguese keen to have widespread competition for places in his squad.

Schneiderlin, 29, had been linked with a move abroad with most other European leagues able to trade until the end of August.

However, speaking at his press conference on Friday morning, Silva explained the former Southampton and Manchester United star is very much a part of his plans for the campaign ahead.

The Frenchman could be in line to start the Blues’ curtain-raiser at Crystal Palace on Saturday after Silva also confirmed summer arrival Fabian Delph will miss out with a thigh injury.

“It’s impossible [for] Morgan Schneiderlin to leave our club. Because if you look now, and look through our squad, the number of players we have, and the solutions you have… we lost Gana in that position… for that position we have Morgan and we have signed JP [Gbamin].

“In this moment, we have two players for that position and it is impossible for Morgan to leave our club. He will be our player until the end [of the window].”

Everton took their number of summer acquisitions to seven on Thursday evening with the signing of Nigeria international forward Alex Iwobi from Arsenal.

The 23-year-old joined Jonas Lössl, Delph, Andre Gomes, Gbamin, Moise Kean and Djibril Sidibe in signing on with the Blues.

And, having boosted his squad, Silva admitted he does expect some departures from Goodison Park before the European markets close.

“It will happen, something,” he said.

“Of course, now I have finished the market, I have my squad closed and we will be with these players and work really hard to achieve what we want during the season.”