Everton will send bare bones squad to Cyprus

UPDATE: 4:45pm BST, 5th Dec 2017

Per the Liverpool Echo, youngsters Harry Charsley, Nathan Broadhead, Alex Denny, Fraser Hornby and Michael Collins will be in the squad to Cyprus

Everton will end their European interest for this season on Thursday evening with a bottom of the table Europa League Group E clash against Apollon Limassol, and new manager Sam Allardyce has already warned that he will not be taking the game seriously.

“It is a dead rubber. I would suggest to the fans that if you are going to spend some money to go and watch them, be mindful that I am going to send a team that is not going to be risking too many players who are going to be involved for Liverpool.

“It would be foolish of me to consider getting a player injured in that game and not have him available. I have too many injuries already.”

The Toffees have been the hardest-hit squad in the Premier League with injuries, beginning the season without starters like Seamus Coleman, Yannick Bolasie, Ross Barkley and important squad players like James McCarthy and Ramiro Funes Mori.

Speaking about Barkley, Allardyce continued -

"He's on the mend but for a hamstring it's been a difficult one because of the size of the tear.

"We've got a total of nine injuries at the moment and Ross Barkley has been a long term one. Bolasie, Seamus Coleman - you want all these players back.

"Then you'd have a healthy squad with the Christmas period coming up.

“You have to ease them back into the team as well. If you were in pre-season you'd have two or three weeks of conditioning training - 45, 60, 70 and 90 minutes in pre-season games.

“With Ross being out for so long you've got to try and take that approach if you possibly can but it depends how desperate you are.”

With nothing to play for, the game represents an opportunity for players on the outer fringes of the squad to show whether they should be taken into reckoning as the Blues enter the traditionally hectic holiday schedule.

There have been unconfirmed reports from insider sources that Allardyce and Sammy Lee might not even travel to Cyprus, with Craig Shakespeare and Duncan Ferguson taking charge of the weakened team.

Allardyce has confirmed that McCarthy will get some playing time, and it is likely that Davy Klaassen and Sandro Ramirez will get to play as well, alongside youngsters like Nikola Vlasic and Beni Baningime with Morgan Feeney in defence.