Ruben Loftus-Cheek was riding high. The 2018‑19 season had been very good for him. The midfielder scored 10 goals for Chelsea and there was one game to come: the Europa League final against Arsenal. Beyond that, he had an eye on the Nations League finals with England and the chance to add to his 10 caps. Four of them had come at the 2018 World Cup in Russia; memories that will never fade. He was only 23. He was about to take the next step. And then it all fell apart.

Loftus-Cheek is addressing the media at St George’s Park. He could be forgiven for pinching himself after being given an England recall on Tuesday as a late replacement for the injured Adam Wharton. Did anyone expect Thomas Tuchel to turn to him for the World Cup qualifiers against Andorra and Serbia? Did Loftus-Cheek dare to dream himself? His previous call-up had been in March 2019 when he was forced to withdraw through injury. The last of his caps was against USA in November 2018.

Loftus-Cheek’s excitement is palpable. He has a new manager in Max Allegri at Milan, where he has played since his £15m move from Chelsea in the summer of 2023, and plenty of new teammates after a busy transfer window including Luka Modric, Adrien Rabiot and Christopher Nkunku. Now this. But as Loftus-Cheek looks forward, it is inevitable that he also goes back – to the fateful game when everything changed.

It haunted Loftus-Cheek for some time that it was essentially a nothing match, a post-season filler before the Europa League showpiece. Chelsea had travelled to the US for a charity engagement against the New England Revolution and it was there that Loftus-Cheek ruptured an achilles tendon. Physically, he says it took him between 18 months and two years to feel OK. Mentally, it was a nightmare.

“It was definitely in my mind [that it was only a friendly],” Loftus‑Cheek says. “We had a European final a week and a half later and I’d played in the competition all the way through. It was very strange because I was feeling so good and so that stuff was playing in my mind about why it happened … why it happened at such a good point in my career. It did take a while to process, to get those feelings out. It was a very hard time.”

Loftus-Cheek describes himself as being “at peace with the past”. He is calmer these days, more experienced. But it was certainly not easy to recast himself as an England fan during his exile, following the team from afar as they reached the finals of Euro 2020 and 2024.

“Being away from the squad for so long, you kind of get used to not going, even if you still want to push in club football to hopefully get a sniff,” Loftus-Cheek says. “I watched the finals at home with my family. It’s almost more nerve-racking watching on the telly than playing in those games for England so I hope I’m not watching another one.”

Loftus-Cheek started to pick up the pieces after his achilles injury with a loan at Fulham in 2020-21, even if it was a struggle. When he returned to Chelsea, he ran into Tuchel, who managed him until the German’s sacking by the club in September 2022. While Loftus‑Cheek has played well for Milan, it is hard not to link his England recall to the connection he enjoyed with Tuchel at Stamford Bridge.

Loftus-Cheek takes part in training at St George’s Park this week. Photograph: Oli Scarff/AFP/Getty Images

“I remember when I went back to Chelsea, he spoke to me about playing right wing-back,” Loftus-Cheek says. “I said: ‘No, no, no.’ But I played there anyway. I played many positions under him.”

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Loftus-Cheek was also a No 6 and a No 8 for Tuchel and there was the FA Cup tie at Luton when he played in central defence. Tuchel prizes Loftus-Cheek’s physicality but he also recognises the purity of his technique, the skills that Loftus‑Cheek honed playing in the cages of Catford, the south-east London neighbourhood where he grew up.

“I’d never played that kind of wide position before,” Loftus‑Cheek says. “But he suggested that I’m a powerful runner and had the pace to play there [at right wing-back], the physicality to get up and down at speed. I ended up playing there quite a lot that season. I was happy to play the role and I actually started to do quite well in it. It was just the shock of the suggestion that was the funny part.

“Since I’ve been at Milan, I’ve played a lot higher, closer to the striker. But under Thomas I played a lot more deeper, so I’m able to do that. With things that can happen in a tournament, being versatile is a good thing. I’m happy to play anywhere for the team.”