That is the view of manager Sean Dyche, who was asked about their struggles so far this pre-season.
The Toffees lost 3-0 to lower division side Coventry City in a friendly contest on Tuesday.
James Tarkowski, Jarrad Branthwaite, Vitalii Mykolenko, Idrissa Gana Gueye and Nathan Patterson, Jordan Pickford, Jesper Lindstrom, Jake O’Brien and Youssef Chermiti were all absent.
“Obviously (the game) showed how many players we are missing, very important players,” Dyche told evertontv.
“Credit to Mark (Robins) and his team, they looked game-ready on that performance, that’s for sure. They are a team that went close last season to getting promotion and certainly on that performance you would fancy that for this coming season.
“From our point of view, like I say, we are missing too many very important players. We are hoping they are going to come back sooner rather than later.
“We are bedding players in and it is difficult when they are in this fitness period to just do any tactical shape and understanding. So we are trying to manage a lot and get it all right when we know deep down there are five, six, seven players who have been very important to us who will be important again.
“There’s three or four we think might be close for the weekend, but two or three we might have to protect beyond then.
“There is better news with Tarky, he might be around it at the weekend, we will see. Gana as well might be around it. Jordan is obviously not back yet.
“Jake, we will see on his fitness, he is another newcomer to us. There’s a few more on top of that. Jesper is more of a common sense sort of thing; he’s just got here – a niggly thigh, nothing too heavy. Jarrad is making progress as well but isn’t quite there yet.”