Tosun insists everyone at Everton will help Gomes get back to his best after horror injury against Spurs
CENK TOSUN reckons the whole Everton squad will provide stricken team-mate Andre Gomes with the support he needs to play again at the highest level.
Gomes, 26, underwent surgery in a Liverpool hospital yesterday to repair his fractured and dislocated right ankle, and ligament damage.
Recovery from the horror injury he suffered against Tottenham on Sunday is sure to be long and arduous.
As Gomes lay on the Goodison Park pitch in agony, close friend Tosun was holding his head. “I just hope and pray he comes back stronger,” said Tosun. “We will give him the motivation he needs.
“It will be a tough time for Andre but sometimes in football, these injuries happen.
Everyone is just so sad, I really feel for him – we are good friends, we sit at the same table together at Finch Farm.”
When Gomes went down after the challenge which saw Heung-min Son sent off, Spurs were leading 1-0.
Deep into stoppage time, Tosun’s superb header salvaged Everton a point.
“He always helps me when we are on the pitch together too,” added Tosun.
“When he went off, I just tried to score for him.” Everton are confident Portuguese star Gomes will make a full recovery, with doctors also reassuring the player that he will be back within a normal time-frame for such a fracture.
It could be 12 months or beyond, however.
But he has the perfect role model in Blues skipper Seamus Coleman, who suffered a similar leg break in 2017.
He endured a long and demanding rehab, but finally returned as a force a year later.
Turkey international Tosun explained that Coleman also sits with Gomes, Yerry Mina and him at the lunch table at the training ground and all of them will visit their friend in hospital today.
Tosun’s goal was a comeback of sorts, too, following his own long period in the Everton wilderness. “If we had a few minutes more, we would have won it for Andre,” said Tosun, a 68th-minute substitute.
“We were pressing and pressing for him. It is for him. The goal is for him, the point is for him. The fans, us, the staff, we were all so upset. We could not even celebrate our point. Everybody is sad inside. Some players cried.
Referring to his goal, he added: “I was waiting such a long time for it – but obviously I could not even enjoy it.”
Team-mate Mason Holgate said: “It shows what we are about as a team.
“We got together and I think it drove us on a bit more once we got going, trying to do it for Andre.
“In the dressing room afterwards, it was really flat. It was like we had been beaten.
“He is all our friend and our team-mate so we are all gutted and wishing him the best.
“It’s hard to cope with. I have been on the pitch for two bad injuries. I saw James McCarthy’s as well and both were the same in that everything goes flat.”