Dele will get special games to prove fitness before Everton offer him a new deal

Everton plan to test Dele’s readiness for a Premier League return with several matches behind closed doors before deciding whether to offer the former England international a new contract.

Dele is a free agent after his Everton contract expired at the end of last season but continues to train with the club as he recovers from surgery on a persistent groin injury. The 28-year-old started only one game in two and a half seasons as an Everton player and has not played a competitive match in 18 months, after suffering a hip injury while on loan at Besiktas.

As an unregistered player Dele cannot play competitively, including for Everton’s under-21s, but Sean Dyche has confirmed the playmaker will have a “games programme” to prove his match fitness. Only if he comes through that unscathed will Everton hold talks on a new deal.

“We honestly haven’t gone that far with him as a player, that’s for sure,” said Dyche. “The club have outlined ‘what ifs?’ but with the player I’ve just said, and I have maintained this, that the first thing is just to get back out there, running freely, playing, training and all that side of things. We will have to wait and see on that.

“He is close but not there yet. And don’t forget he’s hardly had any actual football – as in games – for a long time. There is a games programme still, as well. It’s not just a case of getting fit and running around with the first-team group, then he needs games, so therefore a games programme has got to come next. When you’ve been out that long you need a period of building up and getting to true fitness. That could take three or four games. It’s a bit like an extended pre-season, let’s say.”

Dele is free to sign for any club as he looks to revive his career, but ideally would like an opportunity at Everton. The club have been hugely supportive to the former Tottenham talent, not only through his injuries but over the personal problems, including an addiction to sleeping pills, that he disclosed last summer. He has also forged a good relationship with Dyche.

The Everton manager added: “I think he is respectful of the fact we have helped him where we could. And he knows the players, he knows the environment, he knows me and the staff, so I think it works hand in hand. He is ticking along nicely. Now it’s about building that programme up to the point where he’s playing and then building the games programme up and then a conversation will be had at some point.”

The American billionaire John Textor, meanwhile, has held productive talks with Farhad Moshiri over buying the Everton owner’s 94.1% stake in the club. Textor would become the third interested party in under a year to enter a period of exclusivity with Blue Heaven Holdings, the company that owns Everton, but needs to sell his 45% stake in Crystal Palace before closing a deal.