Everton’s Ivory Coast midfielder Jean-Philippe Gbamin has joined CSKA Moscow on loan until the end of the season.
He last appeared as a substitute in the FA Cup win at Hull City on 8 January.
Gbamin was ruled out for 20 months after signing when a thigh injury that required two operations was followed by an Achilles problem picked up on his return to first-team training.
He is able to move outside the English transfer window because Russian clubs can sign players until 22 February.
CSKA – fourth in the Russian Premier League – resume their campaign on Saturday following an 11-week winter break.
‘A move wrecked by desperate luck’
BBC Sport chief football writer Phil McNulty:
When Everton paid Mainz £25m for Jean-Philippe Gbamin in August 2019 he was earmarked as the replacement for influential midfield man Idrissa Gueye following his move to Paris St-Germain. But his career on Merseyside was cursed from the start.
He made an appearance as a substitute against Crystal Palace on the opening day of the season, then started the win against Watford before suffering a serious thigh injury in training that eventually required surgery.
Gbamin was consigned to months on the sidelines before his hopes of a comeback were shattered when he sustained a serious Achilles injury, again in training, in May 2020. Since then he has simply never been able to regain the form Everton hoped he would produce when they signed the talented Ivory Coast international.
There seems no future for him at Everton and they will hope he produces something at CSKA Moscow that will at least allow them to get some return on a player they had such high hopes for, only to see his time on Merseyside wrecked by desperate luck with injuries.
