Everton boss Sam Allardyce says Phil Jagielka will miss West Brom as he bemoans Idrissa Gueye loss
Allardyce cursed his side's luck over Gueye, who suffered a hamstring injury early in the second half against Chelsea.
Everton manager Sam Allardyce will not consider using veteran defender Phil Jagielka against West Bromwich Albion on Tuesday (26 December) after the Toffees captain completed a gruelling 90 minutes as his side secured a hard-fought draw with Chelsea on Saturday.
Jagielka, making his first start under Allardyce, who is yet to be beaten since taking the reins at Goodison Park, helped lead a stellar defensive effort to keep the Premier League champions at bay and was lavished with praise by his new manager after the clash.
The match with Chelsea was the veteran's first full match since he suffered an injury during Everton's catastrophic defeat away at Southampton last month. Allardyce, who did not want the 35-year-old to play the whole match against Antonio Conte's side, is keen to manage his captain's minutes and is set to rest him for the trip to West Brom, who haven't won for over four months.
"We saw Phil Jagielka come back today and to a magnificent job," Allardyce told the Liverpool Echo. "I didn't want to play him for 90 minutes and he did a sterling job. I don't think I will be considering him for West Brom. This time will be demanding but some players will have to step up to the mark."
Allardyce is choosing to rest Jagielka against West Brom, but the former England boss will certainly be without influential midfielder Idrissa Gueye. The Senegal international suffered a hamstring early in the second half against Chelsea and joins a lengthy list of injured Everton stars, much to Allardyce's chagrin.
"The disappointing thing about an injury is he misses four games even if he is back in two weeks," the Everton boss said.
"Anyone getting injured now misses a massive amount of games. In the next 13 days we are going to play four matches and if anyone gets injured they miss all of them and we have enough injured already."