Sean Dyche gives Dwight McNeil update after Everton winger was stretchered off

Everton manager Sean Dyche remains hopeful that Dwight McNeil’s injury in the FA Cup third-round tie at Crystal Palace is not a bad one after the winger was stretchered off late on in the goalless draw.

McNeil was the Blues’ top scorer last season with seven goals – five of which came after Dyche’s appointment – and he added two more last month. Dyche said: “Hopefully Dwight McNeil is okay. He’s calm in the dressing room which is always a sign, you know you do worry when there are that many people around him, but he’s calm which is usually a positive sign.

“We’ll obviously get it checked out in the next 24-48 hours. It’s his ankle but I haven’t seen the incident back.”

Dyche was pleased with how his side battled to earn a replay after they were reduced to 10 men after Dominic Calvert-Lewin’s sending off. He said: “I take a lot of satisfaction from the mentality once again after a tough one to bounce out of it and get back to our performance levels previous to that and have been a lot previously this season. We were miles off it against Villa and we were last week (at Wolves) but I said I thought there were reasons for it and it was on show, the reasons I mentioned, because I really thought we took the game on.

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“We came here with the right mentality, the right performance level, didn’t find the killer moment but enough to have won the game but we didn’t find it quite obviously.”

Despite the stalemate, the Blues boss believed his side produced a display that the team’s large travelling support in south London will have been proud of. He said: “I