Everton defender Jarrad Branthwaite is set to miss the start of the new Premier League season after suffering a hamstring injury in training.
Jarrad Branthwaite will miss the start of the Premier League season
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Everton's Jarrad Branthwaite is set to miss the start of the season due to a hamstring injury, just days before Everton's Premier League opener at Leeds.
The 23-year-old centre-back was forced to leave training after injuring his right hamstring, the same area he damaged in Everton's final match against Southampton at Goodison Park in May.
According to The Mail, Branthwaite could be out until the end of September. This would cause him to miss the first six games of the new Premier League season, including a Merseyside derby at Anfield, as well as Everton's Carabao Cup second round tie against Mansfield at home.
Branthwaite, who earned his only England cap last year, is also likely to be ruled out of contention for Thomas Tuchel's Three Lions squad next month, when they face Andorra and Serbia in World Cup qualifiers.
Prior to signing a new contract at Everton this summer, Branthwaite had been attracting interest from several Premier League clubs. He is considered a key player in David Moyes' team ahead of their first season at their new Hill Dickinson Stadium, reports the Mirror.
James Tarkowski, another centre-back, underwent hamstring surgery earlier this summer and has been gradually reintroduced during pre-season, with Jake O'Brien and Michael Keane also still at the club.
Moyes has expressed his desire to bolster his squad with new additions, particularly in the centre-back position, even before Branthwaite's injury. This comes after the recent signings of midfielders Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and Jack Grealish.
While on the club's pre-season tour in the US, Moyes shared: "We've got huge priorities as far as where we would like to try and buy the players if we could do.
"But also, we've got a numbers situation as well, we're short in numbers, so there's a bit of both. We're trying to get the pieces we really want first, and that's what we've been fighting to do. So hopefully we can, hopefully things will fall into place.
"But we're just beginning to think, my goodness, we're just not getting enough over the line.
"Because we are actively working to try [and] it's not as if we're a club who are saying [that] we're waiting to sell a player before we can bring one in. But it's not really the situation. We've got money to spend, and we'll have to try and spend it wisely.