Chelsea star Ruben Loftus-Cheek forced out of England squad as Gareth Southgate waits on injury update

Forced out: Loftus-Cheek was in the squad on Thursday night before suffering a significant injury
AFP/Getty Images
Joe Krishnan16 May 2019

Gareth Southgate has revealed Ruben Loftus-Cheek would have been included in England's Nations League squad had he not suffered an injury to his Achilles on Thursday.

The 23-year-old has been superb form for Chelsea this season scoring 10 goals in all competitions - the most of any English midfielder - despite making only 13 starts.

However, the Blues midfielder was dealt a hammer blow when he suffered a suspected ruptured Achilles while playing in a post-season friendly against New England Revolution. Standard Sport understands he faces several months out, almost certainly ending his chances of travelling to Portugal with the squad.

Southgate is a known admirer of Loftus-Cheek, including him in his 23-man squad for the 2018 World Cup in Russia last summer, and rued the "very unfortunate" timing of his injury.

"Callum Hudson-Odoi and Ruben Loftus-Cheek would definitely have been in this squad, so it's very unfortunate for both of them that they've sustained injuries that could keep them out for some time," Southgate told reporters.

"We're waiting on full confirmation on Ruben."

Asked to elaborate on Loftus-Cheek's place in the squad, Southgate said he had been impressed with how he had performed under Maurizio Sarri in the second half of the season.

"I went to bed last night and Ruben was in the squad and playing brilliantly. It's a huge disappointment for him missing a major European final and a brilliant opportunity with us," he added.

"In particular, he's really come on in the last few months and looked strong, and playing with a lot of confidence. So I'm really disappointed for him."

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in