Everton star Abdoulaye Doucoure has been ruled out for 10 weeks with a fractured foot.
The 28-year-old, who joined the Toffees for £20million from Watford last summer, was forced off during last week’s 1-0 win at West Brom.
Doucoure has been one of the first names on the Everton team sheet this season with 25 Premier League starts to his name and his absence could be a blow in their pursuit of a top four spot.
Toffees boss Carlo Ancelotti said: “Doucoure has a small fracture in his foot and so he has to stay out, I don’t know how long – maybe eight weeks, maybe 10 weeks.
“I hope he can recover before the end of the season. We are not happy for this.
“It is an important player for us but we are not the only club which has to manage injuries.
“We were able to manage the absences of Allan, and [Lucas] Digne for a long time.
“We have Tom Davies back, we have [Seamus] Coleman back, we have [Yerry] Mina back.”
Everton are four points below fourth-placed Chelsea following their 2-0 defeat at Stamford Bridge on Monday.
Ancelotti also addressed a cryptic Instagram Story post from Alex Iwobi this week.
After receiving a call-up to the Nigerian national team, the former Arsenal said he hoped ‘to play in my preferred position.’
At times this season, Ancelotti has deployed Iwobi as a wing-back as opposed to his more natural wide forward position.
And the Italian coach has urged Iwobi to tell him what his preferred position is so he can play him there.
Ancelotti said: “I read the post he did. I want to speak, of course. I want to know his preferred position. If he has an idea of where he prefers to play I have to know, I want to know.
“Usually I want to put a player on the pitch where they are comfortable to play, not where they are uncomfortable.
“I have to tell him, ‘I am your manager, tell me where you want to play’.
“When I thought to put [Andrea] Pirlo as a holding midfielder I asked him, ‘do you like to play there or not?’ He said to me, ‘yes, I’d love to play there’, so I put him there.
“If he wants to play number 10 or number nine I’ll put him there no problem, I can adapt the system.”