Everton midfielder Jean-Philippe Gbamin is closing in on a return to action.
Gbamin’s debut season at Goodison Park has been disrupted by a quadriceps tendon injury which required two rounds of surgery in five months to correct.
With football still in lockdown over coronavirus, the Ivory Coast international is continuing to work on an intensive rehabilitation programme from home.
The Blues’ first-team physio Adam Newall and head of medical services Danny Donachie are both overseeing Gbamin’s final steps on the road to recovery.
“He is working tirelessly to get back and sometimes I have to rein him in a little bit,” Newall told the club’s official website.
“We are pleased with where he’s at in his recovery.
“With the surgery he had, the idea is to slowly increase the flexibility in the muscle and progressively ramp up its strength.
“Once you’re happy with those parameters – which we are now – we can increase function.
“If we were back at Finch Farm this week, he’d be ready to build on his outside rehab with the physios.
“Therefore, we are slowly introducing sports-specific movements this week.
“He is extremely positive and looking forward to mixing with the lads and pushing to be back in training.
“The intention is to have a three-week period of reintegration [when Gbamin will train outdoors following the players’ return to Finch Farm], then we expect him to start joining the squad for training sessions.”
The 24-year-old is training twice a day for six days each week using equipment provided by the club following last month’s Covid-19 shutdown.
Newall added: “We had a treadmill and Wattbike and gym equipment delivered to him.
“But we mix up his programme, so he is working outside as well as at home.
“He’ll train for an hour in the morning and another one hour 30 minutes in the afternoon, then he has his own core and upper body routines he adds to his day.
“In an ideal world I’d be working with him at Finch Farm and watching him do every single thing. But after a week or so we got round most of the obstacles.
“I set him a schedule every week and we speak every day. We also use FaceTime so I can watch him make certain movements.
“He records his heart rate and distances on his watch, or if he trains on a machine in his house he screenshots everything he does.
“I do a lot of running, so I will do certain intervals to see if I can challenge him.
“We always try to tap into the players’ competitive nature at Finch Farm, so it is a way of trying to replicate that – and prevent training becoming monotonous for him.”