Ayegbeni Yakubu is out for a minimum of nine months due to the torn achilles he suffered in the win at Tottenham last Sunday and James Vaughan's season is also over because of a cartilage complaint.

The Nigerian striker has been successfully operated on but in a bizarre twist Vaughan has yet to have surgery because the Colorado specialist due to do the operation broke his arm last week skiing.

And with Louis Saha also suffering from a hamstring problem which means he will miss Sunday's encounter with Aston Villa, the club only have one recognised striker in the form of Victor Anichebe - who is also playing with a back injury at the moment.

As a result, Everton have been linked with former Manchester United and Celtic forward Henrik Larsson, David Nugent and Michael Owen and although Moyes would not name any players individually, he says Everton are that desperate that he would happily recruit anybody willing to alleviate the club's current lack of proven goalscorers.

He said: "There is no doubt we have to bring people in and I think we need more than one with the situation we are in at this moment in time.

"Strikers have become the priority because at this moment in time we are short.

"We will scour the market and hopefully bring someone in who can have some impact. You can link (us) with however many you like because I can tell you I am interested in everybody.

"But what I would say is that I would never name players at other clubs.

"I don't think that is right and I don't think managers should do that but you can link me and I will say 'yes' to everybody because we are interested in everybody."

Moyes believes the current injury situation means his players need to demonstrate an "all hands to the pump" mentality and he is urging them to stick together and be willing to play out of position for the good of the club - or even play injured if things get even more desperate.

He said: "We can't afford for people to be injured and even if they are injured they might have to play - that's what happens sometimes and that is the situation we are in.

"There's a lot of weight on all the players because we need them all to step up to the mark and it is all hands to the pump.

"We might have centre halves who play centre forward for the time being or until January or we might need midfield players to play centre forward because when you run out of them everyone has to step up and put their work in.

"The lads have been good at that in the past and I am sure they will be again.

"Hopefully we will be fine with what we have got. If Louis doesn't take too long and if Victor Anichebe is fine then we will have two centre forwards to pick from so that gives us a start."