Sean Dyche has revealed Everton’s squad was hit by illness before their Carabao Cup defeat to Southampton.
Dyche’s side exited the competition’s third round on Tuesday after a penalty shootout where veteran utility man Ashley Young missed in sudden death.
The Blues’ manager fielded a mixed line-up for the midweek cup encounter with academy duo Harrison Armstrong and Roman Dixon both handed starts.
James Tarkowski missed the Goodison Park meeting with the Saints due to a back injury while personal issues also ruled Idrissa Gueye out of contention.
But Dyche confirmed that Dominic Calvert-Lewin, James Garner and Vitalii Mykolenko were all sidelined on the morning of the match after taking ill.
He said: “We wanted to win the game, and we haven’t done, albeit going to penalties, which is always a tricky one.
“But from the team point of view, after piecing together a team this morning with three players going down ill overnight then I feel we’ve given as good as we can get with the players available.
“We have got 12 outfield players currently fit, or not ill, so we had to piece that together this morning and deliver a performance I thought could win, especially with the chances we created.
“I know that has been a challenge even before my time, taking the chances that kill a game, and we haven’t done that tonight.
“But a lot of the performance was right enough to win a game.”