LONDON, ENGLAND - AUGUST 05: Ruben Loftus-Cheek of Crystal Palace in action during a Pre Season Friendly between Crystal Palace and FC Schalke 04 at Selhurst Park on August 5, 2017 in London, England. (Photo by Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)

Chelsea should use Eden Hazard only as much as necessary to defeat Arsenal by George Perry

Kasey Palmer will miss several months with a hamstring injury that recurred during the last international break. Meanwhile, Chelsea and Ruben Loftus-Cheek are both left wondering what Roy Hodgson’s appointment at Crystal Palace will mean for Loftus-Cheek’s development.

Huddersfield manager David Wagner said that Chelsea loanee Kasey Palmer will be out for a minimum of eight weeks. Palmer was a key part of Huddersfield’s promotion last season, despite missing several winter games due to injury. Wagner confirmed that Palmer returned from England’s U-21 team with “a bigger problem…the injury is more or less as big as it was before.”

Palmer appeared in Huddersfield’s first three Premier League games, and scored in the Terriers’ Carabao Cup win over Rotherham. He first felt the injury recur in England’s game against Holland, and had to come off in the following game against Latvia.

Wagner did not want to blame England’s coaching or medical staff for the injury, and pointed to Palmer’s youth and inexperience as a potential cause of the injury’s return.

[H]e was further involved in training and then started the next game, which didn’t really help to settle down the issue. To be fair I don’t like to blame anybody for this injury. There are always so many factors which influence it. Maybe Kasey has to recognize the signs better. – SkySports

Back in London, Chelsea are likely cursing Crystal Palace for sacking Frank de Boer after a historically grim start. Ruben Loftus-Cheek, who Chelsea loaned to Palace to learn from the technically- and tactically-sophisticated de Boer, now faces life under Roy Hodgson. The Blues may feel a sense of relief that they did not sell Loftus-Cheek, but may wish they had pushed harder to send the 21-year old to Newcastle and Rafael Benitez.

De Boer at Crystal Palace was an ideal first loan situation for Loftus-Cheek. He needed to make up for last time in his development. Chelsea kept him at home while most of his Academy teammates scattered into the loan army. The revolving door of managers precluded Loftus-Cheek from making his breakthrough. Suddenly, he was 21 years old with little first team experience while his peers were making names for themselves across Europe.

De Boer at Palace combined the Dutch style of football development that Chelsea prizes with the necessary Premier League experience Loftus-Cheek needs. He would receive a crash course in what his former teammates learned at Vitesse and Ajax, while also learning to play in England’s top flight.

Instead, Loftus-Cheek will now be steeped in the worst style of English football. He will follow in the footsteps of his mentors, teammates and countrymen who lost to Iceland in Euro 2016. Hodgson will do little to develop Loftus-Cheek’s tactics or technique, nor put his physical gifts to productive use.

Loftus-Cheek may still see playing time under the new management, but that is less of a concern than how he will be playing. One of the repetitive failings of Chelsea’s loan system is the habit of sending players to teams where they will not learn how to play good football. Sending a player to a League Two team teaches him how to play League Two football. That does not prepare one to play at Chelsea.

While Loftus-Cheek will at least learn to play against Premier League opposition at Roy Hodgson’s Crystal Palace, he will not learn how to play a style of football that will easily transfer to an Antonio Conte side. Hopefully the Blues inserted some form of recall clause (hello, Nathan Ake) in Loftus-Cheek’s loan contract and can bring him home at the first opportunity.