'Unusual' injury delaying Nathan Patterson's Everton and Scotland comeback

The Scotland right-back has not played a senior match for the Goodison Park club since rupturing his hamstring during a 6-0 defeat to Chelsea in April which forced him to have surgery and miss Euro 2024 with his absence continuing into the new season.

The ex-Rangers youngster is now on the road to recovery with his first steps towards a comeback taken with two 60-minute appearances for Everton Under-21s in Premier League 2 over the past fortnight. However, he is unlikely to be included in the Toffees' matchday squad for Saturday's Premier League clash against Newcastle United due to the complex nature of his setback requiring careful management.

His Scotland return has also been delayed after Patterson was left out of Steve Clarke's latest squad for the upcoming Nations League fixtures against Croatia and Portugal.

Dyche explained: “Patto’s was a different kind of injury. It was quite a serious injury on a tendon, which is unusual and needed surgery on a tendon. Therefore it needs more time. Coming back to true fitness and sharpness after six months which is a long time to be out.

"He’s on a games programme. He hadn’t done as much of the support training. Although he can play a bit quicker than Jarrad, he hadn’t done as my sports-science hours. We made a decision on Jarrad (Branthwaite, who returned in last week’s 2-1 win over Crystal Palace) and he felt right, Patto knows he’s still searching for true fitness and sharpness. There’s more to it, a different injury and the recovery is treated differently as well.”

Patterson has been capped 21 times by Scotland but has yet to fully establish himself as Everton's first-choice right-back since making the £12million move from Rangers in January 2022. He has started just 23 Premier League matches across two-and-a-half seasons on Merseyside due to a combination of injury issues and spells of falling out of favour.

Scotland and Everton fans are keen to see the 22-year-old back in first-team action but Dyche has stressed that Patterson must prove his fitness before being given the chance.

He added: “It’s about him getting fit and his form right to go and play. The first thing is to get him to that fitness level and having such a long spell out, there’s a push and pull scenario; making sure he gets that true Premier League fitness but being a little bit careful with the nature of his injury.

“When he’s there, we start looking at him pushing forward and make it his own when he’s going to play and he’s going to grow into the Premier League with Everton. That’s certainly what he came here for. He’s got some good players and very experienced players there. It’s not all click your fingers and it works. There is a bit of work to be done but the first thing is to get him fit because he’s had a tough run at it with this injury and it’s not easy.”