Everton boss Frank Lampard says they couldn't afford to buy a replacement for Dominic Calvert-Lewin.

The 25-year-old started for the first time this season in the Blues' 1-0 defeat to Newcastle United at St James' Park on Wednesday after recovering from a knee injury suffered in training on the eve of the campaign.

Lampard said: “Dominic is a high level striker, an England striker, a Premier League regular goalscorer with all his natural attributes that we see in terms of the types of goals that he can score, his strengths, his speed, his aerial ability. You have to try and play to the best strengths of that without a doubt and I think also, Dominic is a forward that can connect the game and hold the ball and drop in between lines at times as well.

“So there's a lot to his game and that's what we can't take lightly in terms of how much we've missed him because we're not in a position to replace that with another £50million striker, we're trying to work in a different way and you want Dominic as a focal point in your team whether it's the competition between him and Neal (Maupay) or one striker playing off the other, there are options you can work on in training and all these things. We haven't had that so it's been a big hole for us and the sooner we can work on all those things a bit more regularly, and that Dominic can stay fit, the better for Dominic and much better for the team as well."