Everton’s £13.5m January signing Oumar Niasse may not play again this season, according to boss Roberto Martinez.
After signing from Lokomotiv Moscow, Niasse has only managed a mere 29 minutes of football for the Blues despite being in top form for his previous club, earning him the accolade of Russian Premier League player of the year in 2015.
The Senegalese striker has had a niggling wrist injury as well as fitness struggles since joining the Toffees. The forward made his debut in the FA Cup tie at Bournemouth in February and has made a handful of cameo appearances since then.
The speedy forward will be looking to emulate his scintillating form at Lokomotiv Moscow, where he notched 8 goals and 7 assists in 15 games prior to joining the Blues.
Regardless of his hefty price tag, Martinez believes that the best is to come from Niasse and will be a ‘bonus’ if the striker clocks some game time before the season wraps up;
At the moment, Oumar is adapting well.
The first step was to get rid of the pain in his wrist after the problems that gave him. Now is probably the first period that he had 10 days of complete good work and he’s going to get the benefit from it.
From that to be able to play and to cope with 90 minutes of the demands of the Premier League I think is a very different story. He will benefit with a pre-season and at the start of next season. If he could play some part of the games it would be a bonus but at the moment it is more of an introduction than the star role he can have.
But just by Oumar working with the group and being available and preparing himself towards games is going to help us into that introduction into the British game which is not easy when you come from Russia and have never had a background in this country.
Despite being named on the substitute bench for Everton’s clash against Southampton, debutant Tom Davies was brought on instead of the 26-year-old striker.
