Lampard suspects Godfrey fracture and hints at signings

Frank Lampard admitted Everton's injury situation could force the club's hand in the transfer market, as he revealed Ben Godfrey had suffered a suspected fractured fibula in the Premier League defeat to Chelsea.

Jorginho's first-half penalty was enough to give Thomas Tuchel's Blues a 1-0 win at Goodison Park on Saturday, ending their run of four consecutive league defeats on the ground.

While Chelsea were indebted to Edouard Mendy for preserving their clean sheet with fine saves from James Tarkowski, Demarai Gray and Abdoulaye Doucoure, Lampard's side were hampered by injury problems on the opening day of the new campaign.

Having already been left without a recognised striker through Dominic Calvert-Lewin's injury and Salomon Rondon's suspension, the Toffees saw Godfrey leave the pitch on a stretcher following an ugly collision with Kai Havertz, before Yerry Mina was also forced off after 70 minutes.

After seeing Everton lose their opening league game for the first time since 2011-12 (v Queens Park Rangers), Lampard bemoaned their selection woes and revealed Godfrey's injury is thought to be serious. 

"It makes it hard, you know? Ben gets that injury, we think it's a small fracture of his leg, his fibula," he told Sky Sports.

"We'll see how long that will be, and Yerry, it's an ankle injury that we don't know much about at the moment. 

"We've had that here a little bit; it's hard to put your finger on those freak injuries. I think Ben's foot was caught in the grass, Yerry's I didn't see. They're not muscle injuries, they're freak injuries, so we have to make sure the squad is strong enough to handle those things."

Asked whether the setbacks would impact Everton's recruitment plans, Lampard added: "Maybe, maybe not. We've got centre-backs at the club, but we're looking at different areas where we know what we want to do. 

"We're not going to declare them now, but I think everyone can feel that there's movement and that we're trying to move in the right direction.

"My main focus today is the performance of the lads that were on the pitch. You saw the fans at the end of the game, they responded to what the players did today.

"It's one game out of 38 and we didn't get the point that I felt we probably could've got, but we have to take confidence in not only what the players did out there today, but in how we're going to look going forward, because we're looking to bring in a few players to help the squad."

One area in which Everton are certainly targeting reinforcements is in attack, with Calvert-Lewin expected to miss up to six weeks after suffering a knee injury in training.

Lampard insists replacing Calvert-Lewin, who scored 16 goals in 33 Premier League appearances during the 2020-21 campaign, is crucial after Everton squandered opportunities to snatch a point against Chelsea.

"We're looking at that, because Dominic being out three days before the first game and you can't replace him, Salomon's suspended… We need to look at that to make sure that we've got not just adequate players to play, but players to bring in," he added.

"We've got nine subs now, you look at Chelsea's bench and you understand the difference.

"I think our overall performance deserves us to put the ball in the net once or twice, and of course we'll look for those types of players."