ALEX NYARKO GRANTED WORK PERMIT

ENGLAND, July 20- EVERTON have been granted a work permit for Ghana international Alex Nyarko in just five days - one of the quickest decisions on record.

Normally such applications can take as long as a month to be processed by the Department of Employment and Education.

As applicants are not allowed to enter the United Kingdom until they have actually received their permits, it was expected that the ?4.5m midfielder would not be able to travel back to England with the rest of the squad when they complete their training camp in Italy.

However Nyarko will now be free to return to Goodison Park with everyone else and is in line for his debut in one of two friendlies next week.

Everton applied for the permit last Friday, and if you take out the two day weekend period, the paper work has been processed in just three days.

Nyarko - who meets all the qualification criteria of playing in 75% of his country's competitive matches in the last two years - is unlikely to figure in Tuesday's opening friendly at Dundee United, but should be on show for the trip to Blackburn on Saturday week.