Ruben Loftus-Cheek open to Crystal Palace return amid lack of Chelsea opportunities

The England international has hopes of breaking into Maurizio Sarri's starting line-up but is not sure when the next chance will come

Ruben Loftus-Cheek is not sure when his next minutes will come at Chelsea and, though he still hopes to break his way into Maurizio Sarri’s plans, he cannot rule out a return to Crystal Palace in January.

Loftus-Cheek made his first start of the season with his national team rather than his club side on Tuesday night, playing from the off in England’s 1-0 victory over Switzerland, despite having been limited to just 33 minutes so far under new manager Sarri.

The 22-year-old, who made four appearances at the World Cup in Russia this summer, is aware that his continued involvement in Gareth Southgate’s England set-up is likely to depend on him earning regular playing time in the Premier League.

Loftus-Cheek returned to pre-season training early in an effort to impress Sarri but saw Mateo Kovacic arrive on loan from Real Madrid and move ahead of him in the Stamford Bridge pecking order.

The midfielder’s prospects of regular minutes at Chelsea look slim and, though he believes he can force his way into Sarri’s thinking, he did not rule out a return to Palace, where he enjoyed an impressive loan spell last season.

When asked whether he would consider temporarily returning to Selhurst Park, Loftus-Cheek said: “Possibly but it is still far away, there are still a lot of games to play and I just have to see what happens.

“Right now I am at Chelsea and my focus is at Chelsea and learning at Chelsea. That is in the future and we will deal with that when it comes.

“I’m not sure when I am going to play,” he said, on his recent lack of minutes. “It is just down to me working hard in training, I don’t know whether I am going to play or not play but for me it stays the same, I still train well and do everything the right way in case I do play.

Loftus-Cheek must make do with a bit-part role (Getty)

“There are a lot of games coming up so I think there will be more opportunities coming for players that are not playing every week. We have to be ready and do our best when we get the chance.”

Sarri has spoken publicly about Loftus-Cheek’s need to improve ‘tactically’ if he is to establish himself as a regular starting player at Chelsea.

“We had a lot of talks in the past couple of weeks and he said to me that I need to learn tactically so a lot of my focus and effort is learning his tactics and his ways in training,” Loftus-Cheek said of his manager. “I think the quicker I get that then the more opportunities I will get to play.”

“He is helping me and Gianfranco [Zola, the Chelsea great and Sarri’s assistant] is helping me every day to learn it as quickly as possible and that is great for me.”

England’s defeat to Spain at Wembley at the weekend raised questions about Southgate’s lack of technically-skilled options in central midfield. Many believe that if he can win regular playing time and fulfil his potential, Loftus-Cheek could provide the answer.

But the midfielder himself believes supporters and the media must show patience with this developing England team, especially its youngest talents.

“We have got a really good squad, a really good, young team and we won tonight but we can perform better and I think everyone needs to have patience as well,” he said. “We are not going to become one of the best teams in the world overnight, so we will carry on working.

“It is good to see the fans get excited when we win and down when we lose. It is good to see they are supporting us and want us to do well. That is great for us but on our side we need to be patient and keep working and look to the future.”