Sean Dyche, the manager of Everton, has advised Dele Alli to make the most of his time while recovering from a hip injury he sustained while on loan at Besiktas.

Recently, a photo surfaced on social media that appeared to show Alli, who is 27 years old, with a balloon in his mouth while seated at a table with nitrous oxide canisters.

“You can only guide people with what you think is good for them,” Dyche said when asked about Alli on Thursday.

“Eventually players have choices, so we recommend they make good choices.”

Dyche, appointed Everton boss in January, added: “But behind that, he’s factually injured. He’s come back with a proper injury that’s going to take some time to get sorted out, so he’ll use that period wisely, I hope.”

Alli, who is on loan at Besiktas for the entire season, came back to Everton last weekend for an assessment of his injury.

During this season, the ex-England midfielder has only managed to score two goals in 13 games and hasn’t played for the Turkish team since 26th February.

After signing with Everton from Tottenham in January 2022, Alli played in 11 games, but he has been struggling to perform at his best since then. Besiktas had been considering terminating Alli’s contract this year, but the club’s president has indicated that a potential comeback for the player may still be possible, following his injury.

The UK government has recently announced that the possession of nitrous oxide, commonly referred to as laughing gas, will become a criminal offence. When asked about Alli’s future, Dyche responded that the player is currently unavailable due to his injury, and did not provide any further information.

“Some of the stuff reported – they know what they should and shouldn’t be doing.

“As a manager you cannot control everything in their lives. Should we be following them all day? You can only guide them.

“He has an injury which will take a while to sort out – it will be a number of weeks.”