Everton left-back Vitalii Mykolenko has left the Ukraine national team camp with a new injury
David Moyes is facing a potential left-back dilemma – again – for Everton’s next game with Aston Villa. That's after Vitalii Mykolenko withdrew from the Ukraine national team camp.
Although England have already played and won their first three qualifying matches for next summer’s World Cup finals in the USA, Canada and Mexico, Ukraine kick-off the first of their six fixtures against France on Friday with the encounter taking place in Wroclaw, Poland, because the hosts are unable to play on home soil due to the Russian invasion of their country.
A trip to Azerbaijan follows on Tuesday in the first of three rounds of double headers this autumn and Mykolenko was filmed saying his goodbyes to colleagues and heading into a car on Wednesday with a report from Zorya Londonsk stating that he was returning to Everton to recover after an MRI scan confirmed an injury sustained playing for the Blues and that he would be replaced by Vladyslav Dubinchak of Dynamo Kyiv.
Mykolenko picked up a groin injury early on in Everton’s inaugural first team game at Hill Dickinson Stadium – a 1-0 loss to Roma in the final pre-season friendly for David Moyes’ side and the issue kept him out of the first two Premier League fixtures, a 1-0 defeat at Leeds United and then a 2-0 win at home to Brighton & Hove Albion. The 26-year-old returned for the 2-0 victory over League One Mansfield Town in the Carabao Cup second round, featuring for 87 minutes before making way for Jake O’Brien, and then played the full 90 minutes of the 3-2 Premier League success at Wolverhampton Wanderers last Saturday.
Although Mykolenko, who has now entered the final 12 months of his current contract, has turned out in over 30 matches in all competitions in each of his three full campaigns so far with the Blues (36 in 2022/23; 34 in 2023/24 and 37 in 2024/25), he has suffered from a variety of niggles since picking up a season-ending ankle injury against Liverpool on April 24 last year and he only played 58 minutes for Ukraine at that summer’s European Championship finals. His most recent absence saw James Garner deputise for him at left-back and although the natural midfielder endured a difficult evening at Elland Road, he then netted a long-range goal against the Seagulls the following weekend.
Moyes also has summer signing Adam Aznou, who came on for Mykolenko against Roma, at his disposal but the 19-year-old is still yet to feature in a first team game with his only outing so far this term an 81-minute run-out in the 2-1 loss at Doncaster Rovers in the Vertu Trophy on Tuesday.
When the Morocco international joined Everton from Bayern Munich in July, his new manager stated that he was one for the future by saying: “We see a lot of good things in him, technically he’s very good and he’s athletic, although he might need just a little bit to get himself built up all ready for the Premier League.
“We won’t be putting him under any pressure, and we won’t be giving any guarantees to the supporters that he’s going to be seen right away. We’ll wait and observe him ourselves.”