Everton suffer McFadden injury blow

Everton’s quest for European qualification will continue without both James McFadden and Nuno Valente for at least another month.

It is a bitter blow for manager David Moyes, who has taken his side to seventh in the Premiership, just one point and a place behind Reading.

Striker McFadden has not played for the Toffees since the 1-1 draw with the Royals on January 14, while full-back Valente has been out since the FA Cup home defeat by Blackburn on January 7.

McFadden is recuperating from a broken bone in his foot and will be out until early April, ruling him out of Scotland’s Euro 2008 qualifiers against Georgia and Italy at the end of March.

Valente is still working his way back to fitness after suffering a significant calf strain and he too will be forced out of Portugal’s European qualifying matches next month.

Moyes said: “Faddy (McFadden) is doing okay at the moment and we have had him about the place again.

“He is walking around and making progress. But nothing has really changed. We always expected it to be between six and eight weeks and, at the moment, it is looking closer to eight before he is ready.”

The striker will undergo an x-ray in a fortnight to confirm his progress.

Head physio Mick Rathbone said: “James is four weeks away. He will have another x-ray in two weeks’ time and hopefully will be able to start some jogging after that.

“He is training in the pool and the gym now. He still has a bit to go. When a pin is placed it does stabilise the fracture and you can be a little bit more robust with them so you do tend to get a slightly earlier return to playing.”