Ipswich Town boss Kieran McKenna confirms injuries to defenders Jacob Greaves and Ben Johnson were behind absence from Everton squad

Ipswich Town manager Kieran McKenna has confirmed Jacob Greaves and Ben Johnson were both missing from the Everton match-day squad due to injuries.

Following the 2-0 Premier League defeat to Sean Dyche’s Merseyside side, he said Greaves will be out for a few weeks having suffered a hamstring injury, while fellow defender Johnson suffered a knock at the end of last week.

McKenna said centre-half Greaves, who had been an ever-present in his Premier League selections since a reported £15 million move – potentially rising by a further £3 million in add-ons – from Hull City in the summer, picked up his problem at the London Stadium a fortnight ago.

“He has an injury after the West Ham game, so he’s going to be out for a few weeks at least,” he said.

“And Ben Johnson got an injury very late in the training week this week, so we’re still assessing that one but it’s probably going to be a couple of weeks as well.”

Neither of the injuries were brought up during McKenna’s pre-match press conference, where he did confirm the seriousness of fellow defender Axel Tuanzebe’s thumb injury and also revealed injuries to Massimo Luongo, Jens Cajuste, Massimo Luongo, Ali Al-Hamadi and Cieran Slicker.

But Greaves’ omission from the team sheet against Everton had not come as a surprise with a player having posted a picture on his Instagram account that contained the treatment room whiteboard behind his subject. It had Greaves being alegedly out for ‘26 days’ on it but was later removed.