Everton and West Bromwich Albion have played out a 1-1 draw in a Premier League encounter at Goodison Park marred by a serious injury to Toffees midfielder James McCarthy.
The Baggies opened the scoring on seven minutes through Jay Rodriguez and had the better of things against a lacklustre Everton side for the entirety of the first half.
However, substitute Oumar Niasse drew the hosts level in the second half, and so it remained at the final whistle despite a glut of chances late on from both sides.
The match was overshadowed by McCarthy suffering a suspected broken leg 10 minutes after the interval as he attempted to block Salomon Rondon's shot inside the penalty area.
Rondon was left in tears by the gravity of the injury, the television match director deciding to freeze the replay of the incident before the moment of impact as McCarthy was stretchered off.
West Brom, buoyed by their win over Brighton & Hove Albion last time out, began brightly as Grzegorz Krychowiak blasted over after being played through by Rondon.
The Pole made amends for his spurned opportunity just 60 seconds later as he lofted the ball over a napping Everton backline and into the path of Rodriguez, who coolly slotted past Jordan Pickford.
Sam Allardyce's charges laboured throughout the first half but they did manage to register their first shot on target for over four hours on 38 minutes.
Jonjoe Kenny's curled effort from outside the penalty area was comfortably gathered by Ben Foster and was greeted with sarcastic cheers by the home fans.
The second half saw more of the same early on, with Everton trying in vain to make headway into the Baggies area, but as they began cranking up the pressure, McCarthy's horror injury led to a lengthy stoppage in play.
Both sides were bereft of momentum when play restarted but the introduction of Niasse - which was initially greeted with boos - sparked the game back into life as he turned in a header back across goal from debutant Theo Walcott.
The final stages of the game saw both teams try desperately to claim a winner, with Walcott coming close and Rondon striking the woodwork, but the final whistle blew on a share of the spoils on Merseyside.
EVERTON (4-2-3-1): Pickford; Kenny, Holgate, Williams, Martina; Schneiderlin, McCarthy (Rooney 61'); Walcott, Sigurdsson, Vlasic (Bolasie 46'); Tosun (Niasse 69')
WEST BROMWICH ALBION (4-4-2): Foster; Dawson, Hegazi, Evans (McAuley 80'), Gibbs; Phillips, Krychowiak, Barry, Brunt (Livermore 79'); Rodriguez (McClean 79'), Rondon
Giuseppe Labellarte
