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Premier League giants Everton have announced that recent new signing Arouna Kone is set to undergo surgery on his injured knee and the Ivorian may now be forced to miss the rest of this campaign as a result, according to reports in the Daily Mail.
Kone only joined the Toffees last July from Wigan Athletic, with the striker agreeing a three-year deal with the Merseysiders for an undisclosed fee.
But it is fair to say that Kone has since found it desperately hard to win a regular starting place up front under new Everton head coach Roberto Martinez, despite the Spaniard being the man who first brought the Ivory Coast international to the Premier League when he signed the 29-year-old from Sevilla last year while in charge of the Latics.
And in total so far in this season Kone has managed to appear in just the six matches in all competitions for his new team, five of which have come in the Premier League, although as yet the forward has still to find the back of the net for Everton.
However, it may now be some time before Kone does get to break his scoring duck after the player suffered a knee injury against Hull City last month.
“We had disappointing news (in that Kone) will need a bit of a period away,” Martinez told evertontv.
“We need to give him a lot of support because he was enjoying his role when he came on against Hull and then he got a nasty incident that is going to keep him away for a long time.
“He had a loosened body, a bit of cartilage in his knee, so we need to repair that which will take time.
“We’re going to work on other aspects of his body to get him fully fit and strong so that when he comes back, he is ready to enjoy his football.
“It’s going to be a long spell out and that’s disappointing. We’ve got Darron Gibson reacting really well a couple of weeks after (knee) surgery so now he and Arouna are going to work extremely hard to get back before the season ends.
“We need to give them help and support on that side.”