Everton manager Roberto Martinez has defended Darron Gibson by stating that he has been unlucky with injuries.

Gibson finally made a return to action this season after almost a year out due to a cruciate ligament injury and just when it looked like the midfielder would be able to get back on track, he endured another setback recently by breaking his metatarsal.

The injury is likely to rule out Gibson till the end of the current campaign and the persistent problems with his fitness has led to the 27-year old being labeled as injury prone.

However, Martinez has hit back at such claims and has gone on to defend the Irishman by stating that the former Manchester United midfielder has been unlucky with injuries rather than being prone to them.

The Spaniard told the Liverpool Echo: "If you see a player who keeps getting soft tissue injuries for one reason or another then it is fair to call him 'injury prone'.

"But when you get an injury like Darron Gibson where one is an accident in an international game where he ruptured his cruciate ligament, that is nothing to do with being injury prone, it was down to a collision. That is not something you can avoid.

"And the fracture on his metatarsal is something is very, very unfortunate. That is not being injury prone either. The whole force of the body goes on a small area of the foot and he's ended up with a fracture. That is not being injury prone it is being very unfortunate and something we need to help Darron with."