Everton FC: Phil Jagielka happy to carry on with painkilling injections

Nov 23 2011 by David Prentice, Liverpool Echo

Everton FC: Phil Jagielka happy to carry on with painkilling injections

PHIL JAGIELKA is happy to carry on getting the needle – in order to preserve his ever present Premier League record this season.

The Everton defender broke his toe in the victory at Fulham on October 23, but hasn’t missed a minute’s football since as a result of pain-killing injections.

He led the side out on Saturday in the absence of the injured Phil Neville and declared that he is prepared to continue playing through the pain barrier, with clashes against the notoriously physical Bolton Wanderers and Stoke City next up.

He explained: “There is not much we can do (about the toe), it will be a few weeks before we get to the stage where I don’t need injections, but I don’t feel anything while I am playing – it is the car journeys home when it starts to get a bit sore.

“We never had a run of fixtures as bad as we have done lately with teams who have spent hundreds of millions,” he said. “It was always going to be hard but we have got fixtures coming up – more hard games – and we need to get a run going.

“Bolton will be a hard game. They are picking up a little bit of form having been in a predicament like ourselves. So it will be tough but hopefully we can emerge victorious.”

Everton have mixed memories of their visits to the Reebok Stadium – after becoming the first visiting side to play a competitive fixture there in 1997.

Moyes branded last season’s visit “as bad as I can remember since I’ve been in charge,” following a 2-0 defeat.

The season before, the Blues had to make the trip to Greater Manchester barely 48 hours after a mauling at the Stadium of Light, Benfica – and lost 3-2, while shortly before Christmas 2005 the Blues were trounced at the Reebok Stadium 4-0.

In 2008, though, a late Marouane Fellaini strike earned a season launching 1-0 win while the season before Joleon Lescott scored a late winner.

Reports in Portugal, meanwhile, suggest that Everton are likely to release 21-year-old striker Joao Silva 18 months after he arrived from CD Aves. Soon after he signed a three-year deal in June 2010 Silva returned to Iberia on a year-long loan deal with Uniao de Leiria.

He scored four goals in 12 appearances, before securing another season-long loan, this time with Vitoria de Setubal. His 12 appearances so far have yielded a further four goals, but it appears that Everton do not believe he has the potential to become a Premier League marksman.