Silva Hopeful On Gomes Injury

Marco Silva is hopeful Andre Gomes' ankle injury "is not too serious" after the Everton midfielder was forced off just before half-time in the 0-0 draw at Crystal Palace.

The Portugal international's game was ended at Selhurst Park following a challenge moments before the break, with Gomes replaced by summer signing Jean-Philippe Gbamin.

Silva felt Gomes' absence impacted Everton's rhythm in the second half after they had dominated and went close to breaking the deadlock through Gylfi Sigurdsson, Seamus Coleman and Dominic Calvert-Lewin.

But Silva was upbeat on Gomes being able to make a swift recovery.

He said: "We hope it's not serious with Andre. Let's see in the next few hours. It's an ankle injury. Let's see what our medical staff say but we hope it's not too serious.

"The moment the game changed was the injury to Andre. We started losing easy balls in the second half and they had two chances to score from moments we lost the ball. Even then, we had clear chances from Gylfi."

Gomes was upbeat after the game. In a tweet he said: "I feel we are on the same track we finished the 18/19 season, playing solid, conceding few chances. It's our 10th clean sheet so far in 2019.

"Next Saturday we wait for you at Goodison Park. We want the 3 points. Let's do it together Blues!"