If Ruben Loftus-Cheek does well at the World Cup Chelsea may decide to keep him and Crystal Palace’s chances of signing the midfielder will diminish.
Loftus-Cheek spent the 2017/18 on loan with the Eagles, impressing enough to get included in England’s squad for the 2018 World Cup currently ongoing in Russia.
“He’s a fantastic player and of course we’ve love to keep him,” Hodgson told the Independent.
“We’d love to bring him back but the bottom line is he was loaned to us for a season at the end of the season the plan from Chelsea was that he would go back to them so I guess we’ll have to wait and see what their thinking is.
“If they make him available in any way then of course we’ll be right there trying to get to the front of the queue with our hands up but it’s totally out of our hands. Chelsea will decide.”
Hodgson was a great advocate for Gareth Southgate to name the midfielder in his World Cup squad and former player-turned pundit Danny Higginbotham even told Talksport that he believes Loftus-Cheek should start the Three Lions’ first match against Tunisia on Monday (June 18).
Yet could a small part of the Palace boss hope that the 22-year-old fails to impress at the tournament this summer? Not because Hodgson wants to see Loftus-Cheek fail, but because a good World Cup could significantly inflate his price and perhaps even convince the Blues to keep him at Stamford Bridge for the 2018/19 season.
Many players in the past have earned big moves on the back of a successful international competition and this could be just the stage for the midfield ace to do the same.
However, if Loftus-Cheek is a peripheral figure for Southgate, that might give Hodgson more of a chance of landing the starlet on a permanent basis.
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