Defour out of Toffees clash

The 28-year-old suffered a hamstring injury in the 3-1 defeat at Southampton on Sunday.

And although Defour’s injury is not as bad as first feared, boss Sean Dyche confirmed he will miss out on the chance to take on international colleagues Romelu Lukaku and Kevin Mirallas.

Dyche said: “Steven Defour has a hamstring, but it’s not as bad as what it could have been, which is good news.

“He won’t be fit for this weekend, he definitely won’t be, but we’re thinking he will be a lot quicker than what we first thought, so we’re pleased overall.

“You never know with a hamstring, we’ve had it scanned and it’s not as deep or as big a problem as we thought it might be.”

Burnley face Ronald Koeman’s side looking to build on a decent start at home, which has seen them collect all seven of their Premier League points, beating Liverpool and Watford.

Dyche admits his side are “a work in progress” on the road, but they are a different proposition at Turf Moor: “We’re happy with how it’s gone at home, our form is very healthy there, seven points is a solid start, and we were two referees’ decisions, against Swansea and Arsenal, away from nine or more.

“We know where we are in the scheme of things, we are a smaller club with not as much depth of players or technical quality, but we know we have a format that can affect teams and get points.”

And he hopes to start seeing some balance with the key decisions going against his side of late: “It’s frustrating. “But it’s good in a way that the games have been on television, so it’s not just a manager questioning these decisions, everyone has seen them, and you can only hope they balance out over the season.”