Roberto Martinez has admitted that Oumar Niasse may not feature for Everton again before the end of this season.
Niasse arrived as a £13.5 million signing from Lokomotiv Moscow in January but has managed only a combined 29 minutes of first-team action for the Blues.
And Martinez believes that it will now be next season before supporters see the best out of the Senegalese striker.
He said: “At the moment, and 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.
“Oumar will benefit completely with a pre-season and at the start of next season.
“This campaign is more about getting used to the environment and to get to slowly work towards the physicality of this league.
“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.”