Palace Loanee Loftus-Cheek Set for Long Spell on Sidelines With 'Severe' Ankle Injury

Ruben Loftus-Cheek's season could very well be over after Roy Hodgson revealed his ankle injury may rule him out for several months.

The ​Crystal Palace loanee hasn't played a minute's worth of action since December 28 due to the problem he sustained in the 3-2 loss to ​Arsenal at Selhurst Park.

The injury was only thought to be a minor one but, speaking to the ​BBC after Loftus-Cheek, Hodgson admitted that the problem was much more severe than first thought.

Indeed, the Eagles boss went on to state that the on-loan Chelsea midfielder could be set for a significant amount of time on the sidelines as a result of the issue.

He said: "The injury is more severe than we originally thought, or perhaps hoped, it would be. I would be very disappointed, surgery or no surgery, if he's not playing before the end of the season.

"We certainly want him to be and I would presume ​Chelsea would want him to be because they might like to have a player who's going to be selected for England in their squad but there's literally nothing we can do about it.

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"The only way he can make himself available for Crystal Palace or England is to be fit and at the moment that isn't the case."

Loftus-Cheek was enjoying a season-long loan spell with Palace before tragedy struck - the centre midfielder appearing 17 times for the Croydon-based outfit in the first half of the campaign.

His form for Palace had led to speculation that the 21-year-old would book a place in Gareth Southgate's 23-man party for the World Cup in Russia this summer, but doubts have been cast on those chances due to his ankle problem.

Asked if he thought Loftus-Cheek would miss the opportunity to play for the Three Lions in June, Hodgson reserved judgement ahead of an official diagnosis on the injury.

He added: "I don't know. I don't want to go into that at the moment because we don't know how long it would take after surgery to get him fit again."