Roberto Martinez has admitted that Seamus Coleman would be a "big miss" for Everton should he fail to recover from injury in time for this weekend's Merseyside derby.

The 25-year-old has sat out the Toffees' last two games, and remains a major doubt for the Premier League meeting with Liverpool at Anfield.

"You don't want to lose players full stop so then when you talk about Seamus Coleman who is such an influential player for us he could be a big miss," Goal.com quotes Martinez as saying.

"But what I want is players on the pitch to be 100 per cent and to be able to push themselves and being able to perform and do well for the team.

"It's unfair to put players in a situation where they cannot play at 100 per cent. We need to make sure they don't miss any more time and that's going to be the situation with Seamus."

Everton are currently 14th in the Premier League table.