Everton FC sweat over the fitness of Jack Rodwell as he battles to recover from rib injury to face Bolton.

Nov 22 2011 by Greg O'Keeffe, Liverpool Echo

EVERTON are sweating over the fitness of Jack Rodwell as he battles to recover from a rib injury in time for Saturday’s trip to Bolton.

The England midfielder had an X-ray before the weekend win over Wolves that revealed no fractures, but damage to the muscles between his ribs.

Now Moyes must wait 48 hours to see if the 20-year-old responds to treatment and is able to train before the clash against Owen Coyle’s strugglers at the Reebok Stadium.

Rodwell is believed to be hugely frustrated at the setback, especially since he had only impressed Fabio Capello in the first place by keeping injury-free and featuring regularly for his club this season.

And Moyes, who admits Everton played without flair in their vital triumph against Wolves, is keen to have the in-form midfielder fit again to offer a goal threat to his midfield options.

He said: “We’ve had it X-rayed. It’s not fractured but one of the muscles between is damaged.

“Jack came off in the Sweden game with the rib injury. We are not sure if it is a twist or a kick; if it is a kick it won’t be too long but if it is a twist it will be a bit longer, and he could be out for a few weeks maybe.”

Moyes was also without defender Sylvain Distin at the weekend, and with John Heitinga stepping into central defence to take the Frenchman’s place, had only 19-year-old Shkodran Mustafi as cover on the bench.

“Sylvain has got a bit of a problem with his groin and it is a miss because we need the boys,” said Moyes.

“We have got games when the physical element will come into question against the likes of Bolton and Stoke and it will be really important we get them back available for us.

“The resilience among the players has always been here. We are maybe a little bit like we were in the second or third year after I took over (in 2002) – I thought we looked a bit like that on Saturday.

“But we had some good years there and we won a lot of good games. Maybe we weren’t quite with the free-flowing football of the past seasons but my job is to find another way of winning.

“At the moment we don’t quite have the flair and ability to win it the way we have done in recent seasons with the likes of Mikel and Pienaar.

“But we certainly have a great heartbeat among the players and we will be trying to keep digging out a few results.”