Marco Silva admitted Theo Walcott's early withdrawal from Everton's defeat to Manchester City disrupted a pre-determined game-plan against the champions. 

Walcott was struck in the head by a Raheem Sterling delivery in the first minute of the game and eventually left the field on a stretcher.

 Silva offered a positive post-match assessment of the 30-year-old former Arsenal winger who was immediately discharged from hospital, meeting team-mates in the dressing room following the loss. 

Walcott's inclusion in Everton's starting XI had initially raised eyebrows but the manager confirmed his presence was to exploit a weakness identified in City's left-side. 

"It's true," Silva replied when asked if the injury was a blow to his initial tactics. 

"You know always something can happen. We had a plan with him to explore the space we know they will give us behind them and behind [Oleksandr] Zinchenko or [Benjamin] Mendy, we did not know which [left-back] would play. 

"We thought with Theo Walcott we could explore something with that but unfortunately he came off so early. Alex [Iwobi] started well and did well and we changed Richarlison to the right side.

"But of course, it's never good when you have a plan and prepare something for the game and the first one or two minutes we have to change something."