Leighton Baines and Aiden McGeady are among eight Everton players not to have made the trip to Bern for Thursday's Europa League last-32 first leg against Young Boys.

As well as Baines and McGeady (both knee), the traveling party is also missing Leon Osman, Steven Pienaar and Arouna Kone – a trio in action for the under-21s side this week as they worked on their fitness – plus Tony Hibbert (unspecified).

Sylvain Distin was available but not selected and Aaron Lennon is the other absentee as he is cup-tied, having featured for Tottenham earlier in the competition, but fellow on-loan winger Christian Atsu is back in the squad after playing for Ghana at the African Nations Cup and being ineligible to face his parent club Chelsea last week.

Provisional squad: Howard, Robles, Alcaraz, Jagielka, Stones, Coleman, Oviedo, Garbutt, Barry, Besic, McCarthy, Barkley, Gibson, Mirallas, Atsu, Naismith, Lukaku, Griffiths, Browning, Duffus.

Programming note: For viewers in the United States, the game is being shown live on FOX Sports 2 and FOX Soccer 2GO on Thursday at 1pm ET. Sign up for a free 7-day trial to FOX Soccer 2GO to watch the game on your computer, smartphone or tablet.