Everton boss Frank Lampard has admitted that youngster Nathan Patterson is ready to start against Chelsea.

The Toffees start off their Premier League campaign for the 2022/2023 season against the Londoners.

While captain Seamus Coleman is facing a race to be fit for the game, Patterson is raring to go.

Lampard told reporters: "Seamus Coleman is not training at the minute because of an injury, hopefully he'll be fit very early in the season and he's our captain and our leader while Allan's coming back from an injury and should be back midway through the week. I just want everyone to be involved, so we're all here."

He added: "Seamus will hopefully be fit on the brink of the season so we'll see if that allows him to be ready for those first games. We know Seamus, he'll surprise you all the time, because of his dedication and his body and his desire to play for this club, we saw that last season, and he was really hanging on in there with the injury that he had so we've sorted that out.

"It's an opportunity for others. Patts ( Nathan Patterson ) has got over his injury, we had so many injuries last year, it's something that we also have to tackle in terms of what are the reasons.

"Some of the injuries you can't explain, some you think 'can we be better to try and minimise them?' but we need to try and do that and it's a real collective as well. Injuries mean opportunities and Patts can hopefully take that."