Ruben Loftus-Cheek is a peek at England's future but the reality is he could have been here much sooner

The 21-year-old is stepping up to the national team despite a lack of Premier League experience

Ruben Loftus-Cheek has finally found regular minutes at Selhurst Park (Getty)

There were eyebrows raised in Australia on Thursday when, during an Ashes warm-up game, England’s 41-year-old fielding coach Paul Collingwood was forced to take the field after an injury to Jake Ball.

Considering the raft of withdrawals from Gareth Southgate's squad to face Germany and Brazil this week, you wouldn’t have been surprised if the manager himself had opened up the cupboard at St. George’s Park and stared longingly at his old pair of boots, allowing himself a momentary thought: how better to lead than by example?

Of course, sanity prevailed over imaginary cupboard wonderings and England have instead called up a raft of replacements, largely players that many thought would never don the Three Lions, and certainly not against heavyweight sides like Germany – current world champions and a well-oiled footballing machine – and Brazil, who might just be the best team on the planet at the moment.

But with great drop-outtery comes great opportunity and nobody has benefitted more than Ruben Loftus-Cheek, whose Premier League career has seen barely 1000 minutes of play – around 11 games.

A call-up after such scant game time is a kick in the teeth for the Mark Nobles and Tom Cleverleys of the world; the midfielder who is such a consistent Premier League regular that they blend into the background. Wallpaper footballers at a time when England are looking to paint themselves into a prettier picture.

Loftus-Cheek is, of course, more talented than those two and has earned his call-up on recent form, though you feel as much of it is about pedigree and Southgate knowing his qualities from youth level. Like former Chelsea teammate Nathaniel Chalobah, Loftus-Cheek has been tipped for the top from his mid-teens and as soon as regular top-tier football came their way it was enough to validate the pre-existing views within the England set-up of their respective talents.

The only shame then, really, is that Loftus-Cheek has had to wait until the elderly mark of 21 to make his England bow, though much of that is his own making. It is difficult to make the right decision when you are a young player being sold the world at 16 because it’s rarely clear what the right decision is – do you take the money and pay back your family for their commitment and time over the years knowing one bad injury could change everything? Do you make demands and fight to be allowed out on loan, knowing that these clubs are powerful, slightly scary beasts?

Loftus-Cheek changed agents at 17, just before signing his first professional contract with Chelsea. There was never question of him leaving the club he had joined at eight years old but there were conflicting interests and while plenty knew that this budding star would need to be playing regular senior football in the next couple of years at whatever level, it never materialised with the Lewisham-born youngster caught in a crossfire of conflicting motives. Roman Abramovich was desperate for academy players to progress to the Chelsea first team and pushed for young players to be used as depth.

Those brief cameos left Loftus-Cheek as a bird in a cage, unable to pick up rhythm or regularity at a level where he was already good enough to be comfortable. Jose Mourinho made a show of Loftus-Cheek, albeit an overwhelmingly positive show, and insisted he got a winner’s medal for Chelsea’s 2014/15 Premier League title in a season where he only played three games. A bigger prize for the midfielder would have been the freedom to get away from Stamford Bridge and play football every week rather than a well-meaning but ultimately empty gesture dangling from a ribbon.

Of course, finally, Loftus-Cheek has got his chance with Crystal Palace and everything is finally pointing in the right direction for the 21 year-old. His emergence has been perfectly timed, with England a little short in midfield and one or two World Cup squad places up for grabs in the engine room. Jake Livermore, Jack Cork, Danny Drinkwater and Jack Wilshere will compete for those berths and Loftus-Cheek should have little to fear from any of them. Wilshere, the only other English midfielder who has the same sort of ability to drive the ball through the transition phases, has had almost the inverse of Loftus-Cheek’s career, a glut of early opportunities melting into frustration and question marks.

In a time where fashionable three-man backlines are emerging as dominant, though, a player who can carry the ball through the middle third and cover box-to-box is suddenly back in demand after years of being sidelined by tactical trends. It is obviously the stuff of dreams that Loftus-Cheek gets to make his debut for England against Germany at a sold-out Wembley. The only shame is that this could have all come sooner for him.