Loftus-Cheek happy to be back in action

Ruben Loftus-Cheek relished scoring the goal that made the points safe as Crystal Palace beat Leicester 5-0 in front of England manager Gareth Southgate.

The 22-year-old then revealed the extent to which he is enjoying his return to first-team football following injury and that only once Palace have preserved their Premier League status will he focus on the World Cup.

The on-loan Chelsea man’s 81st-minute finish put Palace 3-0 up and represented his first goal since his return from an ankle injury that saw him miss 11 matches.

Before then he had played his way into contention for Southgate’s squad for this summer’s competition in Russia, and he told the club’s official website: “I have had a few injuries and the last one was difficult to take because I was out for longer than I expected.

“It’s good to be back and playing in front of the Selhurst fans and getting on the scoresheet is brilliant.

“I am just concentrating on performing, trying to get better and focusing on trying to win and getting the three points in the next two games for Palace and see what happens.

“It was a fantastic performance from the whole team, we said before that we would come out strong and treat it as a must-win.

“Right from the start everyone was focused and ready to go and we showed that in the first half, coming in with the lead at half-time and then took the performance even higher in the second, so that was fantastic.

“We knew if we got the win it would take a lot of pressure off and we obviously still have two games left which we treat as needing to win as well but we are in a good position now and just need to kick on and finish it off.”

Victory meant Palace climbed up to 11th and six points clear of the bottom three. They are also within six points off ninth-placed Leicester.