• Manager says he respects player’s situation at Manchester United • Merseysiders face West Ham looking for first win in six matches

Everton’s manager, Ronald Koeman, will be “very pleased” should the opportunity come about for him to bring Wayne Rooney back to the club.

There has been plenty of talk lately about the Manchester United captain leaving Old Trafford since he was dropped to the Red Devils’ bench last month.

On Friday Koeman was asked how likely it might be that Rooney returns to Everton, whom he left in 2004 to join United, and the manager said: “First of all, I think it is a great player and he has still not finished his career.

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“I do not know how his situation is and I need to respect that situation. That’s not my problem. But even when we get one time the possibility that Rooney is an option for Everton, I’m very pleased.”

When then asked if he was surprised by some of the criticism Rooney has had, Koeman added: “That is part of football. He is enough of an experienced person in football that he knows what can happen and everybody gets periods of critics.

“It is part of football and of the business and you need to stay calm. That is the best thing you can do.”

Koeman was speaking before Sunday’s Premier League visit of West Ham, when Everton hope to return to winning ways. The 2-1 league defeat at Burnley last weekend made it five straight games in all competitions without a victory, a sequence preceded by five successive wins.

Everton will again be without their full-back Leighton Baines and midfielder James McCarthy, who have both been troubled by hamstring problems. Since the last international break earlier this month McCarthy has featured as a substitute in a 1-1 draw at Manchester City and then missed the Burnley game.

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Before the match against City Koeman expressed his unhappiness with McCarthy’s handling by the Republic of Ireland, who played the 25-year-old for almost two full matches after not featuring for Everton since 23 August because of a groin injury which required surgery.

The Dutchman at that time was quoted as saying the Republic were “killing” the “massively overloaded” McCarthy. And on Friday Koeman said regarding the player’s current condition: “It is a slight hamstring problem.

“That came out of when he played, after he played for Ireland, and everybody knows what my reaction was at that time. The boy needs training. That’s what he needs before starting to play. But we know in two weeks again we have the international duty. But it’s not the moment to talk about that. We need to keep focused on Sunday.”

Everton later announced that the former Football League chairman Keith Harris has joined their board having helped to facilitate the takeover by Farhad Moshiri earlier this year. Harris has been involved with investment deals at a number of other top-flight clubs and served as a director of Wembley National Stadium, the owners of the national stadium.