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Martinez provides injury update on quartet

Kone due back; Pienaar to be assessed week by week

Roberto Martinez has provided an update on the fitness of four of his players today, hinting that Arouna Kone should be fit for Saturday's trip to West Ham and confirming that Steven Pienaar suffered a minor hamstring tear in training last week.

Though some reports have suggested the South African could be out for as long as a month, the Everton manager feels that Pienaar could be back sooner.

"With Stevie, we need to assess him week to week," Martinez told evertonfc.com. "When you get the sort of soft tissue injury he has, you never really know.

"I do feel that Stevie will react well to treatment. He is a very fit boy and I do feel that he will probably be back quicker than anyone expects."

Kone also took a knock in training last week, suffering bruising to the bone, but the injury should have cleared up by the weekend.

Two players who are continuing their measured recoveries after being sidelined for the entire start of the new season are Darron Gibson and Antolin Alcaraz.

Both are being eased back to full fitness following a knee injury and hernia surgery respectively and while Martinez wasn't able to put a firm timetable on either player's return, he seems pleased with their progress.

"[Darron] is progressing really well," the Spaniard said. "I would say that from a medical point of view, he is very close to being fit. Now it's the match fitness he needs to get.

"That could take a bit of time and we need to adapt to how the knee reacts to work.

After the surgery Antolin had in his groin, now he is still recovering," Martinez continued. "We need to make sure that we get him the right program and the medical department is working really well with Antolin.

"We need to help him to get through this period. We hope that he is going to be fully fit very soon."

The deadline-day acquisition of Gareth Barry and James McCarthy has eased the manager's concerns in central defence and with John Heitinga and John Stones in the wings, there is ample cover at centre back for now as well.

And Steven Naismith's goalscoring exploits against Chelsea as Pienaar's deputy will also have encouraged the Blues' coaching staff as they look to build on the team's unbeaten start to the season.

Quotes or other material sourced from evertonfc.com

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