Roy Hodgson hails Ruben Loftus-Cheek
Crystal Palace manager Roy Hodgson has piled the praise on Ruben Loftus-Cheek, the Daily Mail reports.
The young midfielder has been in superb form recently and made his bow for the England senior team during the international break.
Loftus-Cheek started both games against Germany and Brazil, which both finished 0-0. The Palace loanee shone in the draw against Germany, but was forced off with a back injury in the second friendly of the break.
The Chelsea academy graduate missed Palace’s most recent training session and it looks as though he may be forced to endure a brief spell on the sidelines.
Despite this though, Hodgson was full of praise for the energetic midfielder, who has been a bright spark for Palace this season.
He’s a quality player. It was good he got the opportunity and very good he took the opportunity.
When a young player comes into the team, makes his debut and does well, he sometimes gets praised to the skies and we’re very good at praising people to knock them down very quickly afterwards. I hope that won’t affect him. I don’t think it will.
The Eagles remain rooted to the bottom of the Premier League, but have been gradually improving as the games have gone on, with Loftus-Cheek’s development clear to see.
He’s a very composed and sensible young man. He knows he played well but he also knows there’s a lot of work to do before he can really call himself a top-class international player.
He is older than a lot of players who came with me in 2014 and (to the European Championship with England in) 2016 and they did well enough.
The important thing for (Palace) is that he plays and helps us do well and I am convinced that if that happens he’ll be a contender for Gareth Southgate.
Hodgson will hope to have the youngster back at his disposal quickly.