What on earth is Ruben Loftus-Cheek doing back in the England squad?!
Loftus-Cheek equalled his best-ever goals tally at Chelsea during a sensational debut season and plenty of Serie A followers felt he was doing enough to earn an England recall in the final few months before Euro 2024.
However, Loftus-Cheek ended up following the tournament as a fan – and the presumption was that he would do likewise during next summer’s World Cup, given his 2024-25 campaign was an unmitigated disaster.
Before the season started, AC Milan advisor Zlatan Ibrahimovic demanded even more goals from Loftus-Cheek. He got none, though.
Loftus-Cheek was hindered by yet another injury, which saw him miss three months of action, while he sat out a further four Serie A games after having his appendix removed. However, Loftus-Cheek also looked a little lost during Paolo Fonseca’s six-month stint at San Siro.
Sergio Conceicao, who took over in January, was overjoyed when Loftus-Cheek finally became available for selection again for the final few weeks of the season, hailing the 29-year-old as a “beast” and a “top-quality box-to-box” midfielder.
Physically, though, Loftus-Cheek still didn’t look quite right after his lengthy lay-off and it was telling that he spent the entirety of the Coppa Italia final loss to Bologna on the bench.
