McGeady and Gibson can leave Everton on short term loans

Roberto Martinez has said out of favour Everton winger Aiden McGeady can leave Goodison Park on a short term loan deal.

McGeady has made a solitary appearance for the Toffees this term and the 29-year-old will be allowed to leave Merseyside until the end of the season in a bid to find regular football ahead of Euro 2016.

However, while Martinez is happy to let McGeady try and force his way into Martin O’Neill’s plans elsewhere, the Spaniard insists the Scottish-born winger is not for sale.

Martinez said: “We are going to work together with Aiden and his representative and make the right call.

“There have been three enquiries for him and it is going to be over the next couple of weeks when we will make the final decision. It is a really, really busy period and but we need to make sure that we get the right call.

“It is going to be a short-term deal so Aiden can play football and he can finish the season really strongly and then he has got the involvement with the Republic of Ireland at the European Championships and that will be part of the decision that we will make.

“At the moment there is an opportunity for him to go abroad and the other two are domestic. We are in the early stage at the moment of making that final decision.

“It will be just a loan until the end of the season.”

Midfielder Darron Gibson played the full 90 minutes for Everton during last weekend's comfortable FA Cup victory over Dagenham & Redbridge, but he could also follow McGeady out on loan.

Like McGeady though, Gibson will only be available on a short -term deal, Martinez said: “Both players will be returning and competing strongly in pre-season with a view to the next campaign.”

Meanwhile James McCarthy has returned to training after he was forced off with a groin injury during Everton’s 3-2 loss to Stoke City on December 28th.

However, Martinez is unsure when McCarthy will return to action, he said: “He has been training well and on Monday completed a very good session. He will probably need to step up that individual work before he can join the group.

“So he is on the right path but it may be too early to give some sort of a deadline.”