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Roberto Martinez will consider handing Ramiro Funes Mori his Everton debut at left-back against Chelsea – if Brendan Galloway and Bryan Oviedo fail fitness tests.

The Blues boss is hopeful that Galloway will recover from a knee injury in time to face the Premier League champions at Goodison but is less confident that Oviedo will recover for the weekend's early kick-off.

Oviedo was forced to withdraw from the Costa Rica squad last week after hurting his knee in the 0-0 draw with Spurs.

And if the duo are not ready to face Chelsea this weekend then Martinez says he would have no hesitation in selecting Mori, the deadline day signing from River Plate.

“Galloway is progressing really well and I expect him to train with the group on Thursday,” Martinez told the ECHO.

“Bryan is still recovering well but we don't know how long it will be for him. Not to be able to join the international set-up tells you how much of a worry that is for Bryan because he loves representing his country.

“He (Mori) has played in that position before, the only thing we need to assess is how he comes back.

“It is a long trip back from international duty although he was playing in the US so it's not as long a journey if he had been playing in South America.

“We will assess him, he is ready to perform and he can play in that position. He has played left-sided centre-half and left-back so I wouldn't have a worry about him.

“But we will assess him and the next 48 hours will tell him more.”

Mori, who became Everton's most expensive defender at £9.5m, won a second cap for Argentina against Bolivia last week but did not feature in the game with Mexico last night.

“Ramiro has been really exciting to have around but then we lost him to international duty,” Martinez added.

“It was great to see him play 90 minutes against Bolivia and great to see him not play against Mexico because it would have been too much.

“But he is ready to enjoy our football club and our squad. He is arriving back on Thursday and we will assess him and see how he comes back.

“I'm sure Ramiro will be ready for any sort of action.”

Darron Gibson has also returned to training after injury.