Pienaar set to miss trip

29 September 2009 08:43
Steven Pienaar is almost certainly out of Everton's Europa League clash with BATE Borisov on Thursday - but the club believe he is not due for a long spell on the sidelines. The midfielder picked up a knee injury in Saturday's victory at Portsmouth and has been on crutches ever since. Everton's medical team have assessed the injury and hope it is just heavy bruising. But they plan further checks this week and will have a better idea of the injury when the bruising has reduced. Everton leave for Minsk on Wednesday for the Group I showdown and Pienaar is highly unlikely to be involved and may well also miss Sunday's home league game with Stoke. Physio Mick Rathbone said: "There's no timescale at the moment but hopefully it will only be something short-term. Steven took an almighty knock on the inside of the knee, so he is pretty sore. "There's a lot of bruising and a lot of swelling around the area, so we've got him on crutches at the moment."

Source: Eurosport