Everton lose Pienaar battle

Everton have lost their battle to play Steven Pienaar in tomorrow's Carling Cup semi-final first leg at Chelsea.

Earlier today manager David Moyes had invoked the 14 day rule and insisted the South African international would not have to travel to join up with his country's African Cup of Nations squad until Wednesday.

Moyes' view was that Fifa regulations did not make it clear whether players should be released 14 days ahead of the start of the competition, or 14 days ahead of a specific country's first match.

The tournament starts in Ghana on January 20th, but South Africa's first match is not until January 23rd  against Angola.

Pienaar was expected to fly to Pretoria on Sunday, but trained with Everton at their Finch Farm complex today.

But by mid-afternoon, South Africa had formally asked Fifa to intervene, and Everton were contacted by the world's governing body and told their interpretation of the rule was wrong and that Pienaar should be released immediately.

An Everton spokesman said: "Steven will be going to London today, but not to Stamford Bridge. He will be flying out from Heathrow. We have been contacted by Fifa and told he has to be released by us ahead of the Chelsea match."

Moyes will have Yobo back from a foot injury, while Tim Howard, Tim Cahill, Phil Neville and Nuno Valente will all be in the squad having missed Saturday's 1-0 FA Cup defeat by Oldham with minor injuries.

Chelsea defender Ricardo Carvalho is available again after suspension.

Goalkeeper Petr Cech (hip) has an outside chance of being fit but Andriy Shevchenko (leg), John Terry (foot), Florent Malouda (knee), Frank Lampard (thigh) and Carlo Cudicini (rib) are still missing.

Mikel John Obi should be available before jetting off to the African Nations Cup but Michael Essien, Salomon Kalou and Didier Drogba have already left.