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Everton manager Roberto Martinez says that he has no need to strengthen his midfield in the transfer market despite Ross Barkley's injury. Barkley is facing a long spell out of action suffering medial knee ligament damage in training last Friday. Martinez suggested after Saturday's 2-2 Premier League draw at Leicester that he had "seen injuries like that take four or five months" to heal, although he later said he was optimistic that the England midfielder would be back much sooner than that. Everton have yet to confirm how long Barkley will be out for following an initial scan, although Martinez indicated that he will have a clearer idea in the next few days. The 20-year-old is expected to be out for at least six weeks -- yet Martinez has no plans to rush into the transfer market. "I don't think I will," the Everton manager told the Liverpool Echo. "Ross has been very flexible and played that number 10 position and the number eight position. "But in midfield we have James McCarthy, Gareth Barry, Mo Besic and Darron Gibson, which is good cover. "As for number 10, Steven Naismith can play that role, Leon Osman can and even Steven Pienaar can play there as well as Kevin Mirallas. "They're all different players and I don't think, even in the short term, you can replace Ross Barkley. "We need to do it from within the squad and help each other in the group to perform week in week out while Ross is out. All we want is to get him fully fit and get him back hungrier than ever." Martinez is hopeful that Barkley, who signed a new contract in July, will have a significant part to play in Everton's season. He said: "The reports about the five months over the weekend were taken out of context. "I mentioned that the injury could be between six or seven weeks all the way to five months in the worst case. "If anything he'll be in the lower level because of his constitution and the physique he has. "It's a medial ligament injury and we know that Ross, in terms of the power and the strength that he has in his body, he could easily react to treatment a lot better than other players. "Until the end of the week, or probably the next 10 days, we won't know how the knee is progressing and how quickly Ross can be back."
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