Bengaluru, January 31: Chelsea academy product Ruben Loftus-Cheek, who was on a season-long loan at Crystal Palace, has temporarily returned to his home side to undergo treatment for the ankle injury he suffered just after Christmas, Palace manager Roy Hodgson has explained.
Loftus-Cheek last played for Crystal Palace in their narrow 2-3 defeat against Arsenal during Christmas and has been on the sidelines since then.
The player was recently seen at Chelsea's Cobham training complex and there were rumours going on that the Blues have terminated the player's loan deal amidst the injury concerns.
But Hodgson now dismissed the speculation suggesting that the player has returned to Chelsea to consult with the parent club's medical team over his injury and will be kept under observation there for two to three weeks.
Happy Birthday @rubey_lcheek !
— PalaceEagles.com (@PalaceEaglescom) January 23, 2018
Today Loftus-Cheek turns 22! He has been a great addition to the squad, even though he's been struggling with injuries. We hope he has a speedy recovery with his recent ankle injury, and makes the flight to Russia in June! #CPFC #PalaceEaglesApp pic.twitter.com/tfeHrjMuG4
However, the palace manager also hinted that if the injury does not heal, the player will have to go under the knife, which can jeopardize his participation in the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia.
“Chelsea insist on having him back there during this period of rehabilitation, so we won’t really know until such time that they release him back to us,” Roy Hodgson told reporters.
“The agreement was that he would spend two to three weeks without having any surgical intervention, in the hope that the problem he has will be resolved naturally.
“During that time, Chelsea have insisted they take care of that because they regard him as their player. We will now wait for that period to pass, then he’ll come back to us. We will then test whether or not the injury is still there or whether, as they think, the injury has cleared up. So there’s another 10-14 days to go before I can tell you anything about Ruben Loftus-Cheek at all. I haven’t seen him literally for 10 days.”
Ruben Loftus-Cheek doing his rehabilitation training @rubey_lcheek pic.twitter.com/cMCDQRrJsa
— threesixtytv (@Threesixty_tv) January 30, 2018
The 22-year-old has made 15 Premier League starts for Palace this season. He earned his first senior England call-up in November’s friendlies against Germany and Brazil. However, his place in England's squad for Russia is still not guaranteed because of the injury scare.