Leighton to a Tee

Now Injury Free and Back in the Starting XI, Leighton Baines Is Keen to Make Up for Lost Time as the Blues Enter a Crucial Phase of the Season.

- Brian Doogan

For Leighton Baines, the festive rush can’t come soon enough. As we enter December, the left-back is two games into his comeback from the hamstring problem that decimated the first third of his season. Thankfully, the chances to make up for lost time are about to arrive thick and fast.

“I felt okay,” said Baines after comfortably and confidently coming through his first match in two months against Swansea City last month, the 31-year-old typically cool, calm and understated as he stood in the ‘elbow’ of the Goodison Park tunnel, the corner where the two teams meet before kick off and post match shines the spotlight for the grillings of the world’s media.

His previous outing, in the 3-1 win against Middlesbrough on the same ground, had been only his fifth of the season before the injury struck.

“It’s been a while that I’ve been out,” he continued. “I had a bit of a setback and then there’s been international breaks as well. It will be nice now to get a decent run of matches and decent match fitness.

“Because of the international breaks, it’s stop-start to this point for everyone really but now we’ve got a chance in the coming months to really knuckle down.”

A case of his campaign starting here then? “A little bit, yeah.”

A 1-1 draw against Bob Bradley’s Swans, rescued when Seamus Coleman leapt highest to head home in the dying minutes, was followed by a 1-0 defeat at Southampton last weekend. Despite the result, Everton remain a respectable seventh in the Premier League table and could climb a further place by beating Manchester United, the team directly above them, this afternoon. After that comes Watford, then Arsenal, a Merseyside derby before Christmas and then games against Leicester City and Hull City to see the year out.