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Leighton Baines soldiered on until November 26 last season.

Everton's best left-back since Ray Wilson hung up his boots, but now approaching his 34th birthday, played every minute of 20 of Everton's first 23 matches of 2017/18 before, perhaps inevitably, he succumbed to a calf injury forcing David Unsworth to seek makeshift resolutions to Everton's lack of natural left-back cover.

Eight months later the situation has still not been satisfactorily addressed - and Everton's vulnerability to a Baines injury was highlighted much earlier this season.

Reinforcements have now arrived however, with the signing of Lucas Digne from Barcelona.

But just who is the left back who has moved to Goodison?

(Image: David Ramos/Getty Images)

Style

Digne understudied Jordi Alba at the Nou Camp and their playing styles are not dissimilar.

Used as a wing-back by Barca, he is pacy and has excellent crossing ability - but he is also renowned for his defensive capabilities.

In fact, during his time on loan at Roma in Italy he was the top-ranked tackler in Serie A.

Clubs

A product of the Lille youth system in France Digne's breakthrough season was 2011/12. He made 49 appearances and scored two goals before PSG took him to the capital for a reported €15 million.

After making only 30 appearances in two seasons he opted for a season-long loan move to Roma in order to gain more playing time.

It was a shrewd move.

He racked up 33 appearances and impressed to the extent that Roma wanted to make the move permanent. But other clubs were alerted - including one of the biggest in the world - and in July 2016 he joined the Blaugrana for €17 million.

(Image: Michael Steele/Getty Images)

Despite reliably stepping up on 21 occasions in all competitions, replacing Jordi Alba long-term was always going to be a big ask.

After making one appearance for his country at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil he was only in the standby squad for Russia as France were crowned world champions for a second time - and he is ready to move on again.

Language

In just one year in Roma Lucas Digne learned very good Italian and he picked up the basics of Spanish very quickly, too.

A working knowledge of Scouse might be more problematic, though!

What does Marco Silva see in him?

In an early interview at Barcelona Digne was asked if it was different being a full-back at Barcelona than at other clubs. He replied: "Here you have to attack a lot, but press rapidly to get the ball back too, it's a different way of playing."

It sounds exactly like the model Silva is trying to integrate at Everton.

What has he cost?

Everton have paid £18million for the full back.