Carlo Ancelotti must trust Anthony Gordon to fill the void created by James Rodriguez’s potential injury when Everton visit Southampton on Sunday.

The Blues look set to travel to the south coast without their sensational summer signing after boss Ancelotti confirmed the Colombian had sustained an issue early into last week’s Merseyside Derby during a collision with Liverpool centre-back Virgil van Dijk.

Rodriguez has been a vital mainstay of the Toffees line-up since his arrival at Goodison Park, with Ancelotti calling on the playmaker to open each of his side’s five Premier League fixtures. The Italian’s trust has also been well placed, with the 29-year-old either scoring, assisting or pre-assisting 10 of Everton’s last 12 top-flight strikes.

“Unfortunately, James had a problem during the game [against Liverpool],” Ancelotti told EvertonTV.

“He had a mistimed tackle with Virgil van Dijk at the beginning of the game and I think he will not be available for the game against Southampton.”

Should the suspected issue sideline Rodriguez and force Ancelotti into altering his favoured starting line-up, the Italian must look to award Gordon his Premier League season debut having been impressed by what the 19-year-old has offered during his appearances in the Carabao Cup.

Gordon has also displayed his enthusiasm to play in the top-flight to Ancelotti, who noted last month how the young talent banged on his door after being overlooked during the opening weeks of the league campaign.

“He wanted an explanation and so I explained to him the squad is really competitive and sometimes it can happen that the players are not involved," Ancelotti said, via quotes by the Liverpool Echo.

“But this doesn't mean I don't believe in them. I believe, and so he had the opportunity against Salford to show us his quality, he took the opportunity because he played really well.”

“I love, I love this. It means they are really interested to do a proper job,” the former Real Madrid coach added when asked about Gordon coming to see him.

Ancelotti has plenty of reasons why Gordon’s performances in the Carabao Cup should excite both the Everton coaching staff but also their supporters, while displaying the potential he can bring to the Premier League during any time without Rodriguez.

Over his time on the field against Salford and Fleetwood Town, Gordon has created a remarkable average 5.5 chances per game with 3.5 shots and 2.0 key balls, while making 1.5 successful dribbles with a 50 per cent success rate and winning 5.0 of his ground duels, per SofaScore.

His output led Gordon to record two assists in the Second Round clash with Salford before creating Alex Iwobi’s Third Round strike away to Fleetwood to put Everton into a 3-1 lead.

The more he plays, the better Gordon will become and further push on from the exciting talent David Unsworth hailed him for being during the winger’s time in the Toffees’ Under 23s.

“[Everton fans] should get excited about him,” Unsworth said, via quotes by the Liverpool Echo following Gordon’s first-team breakthrough during Project Restart.

“But it is our job to give him the information, day-to-day, week-to-week, game-by-game and month-by-month to ensure he fulfils his potential because what we've got at the moment is a young, exciting player with bags and bags of potential who we feel has a great chance of being a Premier League footballer.”

AND in other news, Everton are yet to open talks with a key club figure who’s set to be out of contract next summer.