Hodgson says Barkley is fulfilling potential at Chelsea

Roy Hodgson said Ross Barkley is on the right road towards fulfilling his potential at Chelsea as the Crystal Palace manager prepared for Sunday’s reunion with a player to whom he handed a first England cap five years ago.

Barkley’s burst of form has earned a starting place in Maurizio Sarri’s side of late and the 24-year-old is expected to begin against Palace, having scored on each of his past three Premier League appearances. The former Everton midfielder was first called up by England in 2013 during Hodgson’s tenure, with the manager’s faith in the player’s talent seeing him included in his squad for the 2014 World Cup and Euro 2016.

Barkley did not play in the tournament in France and, with a serious hamstring injury having limited him to only four appearances last term as he swapped Everton for Chelsea mid-season, his appearance in last month’s Nations League ties against Croatia and Spain was his first for England in 29 months.

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“Ross is showing everything we thought he could and should be,” Hodgson said. “He was unlucky with his injury, which set him back when he got to Chelsea, but he has done exceptionally well to battle through that. He certainly looks a lot fitter than the last time he was working with England.

“When he came to us [in 2016], he did realise he wasn’t as fit as he should be and, to get a place in that 2016 squad, he really worked unbelievably hard to get his weight down and his body back into the right shape. He hadn’t been playing a lot of regular football at that time. But Barkley was one of many talents that came into the England team a few years ago and a player who, if he can get a run of games and keep himself fit, has everything you are looking for in a midfield player. I’m very pleased for him.

“Like quite a few of the players who came into that England team very early, they get games behind them and mature. At that time we had Danny Welbeck, Raheem Sterling, Barkley, Kyle Walker and Danny Rose who weren’t getting an awful lot of club football, but now they are number one picks and getting Premier League and Champions League football, playing for their national teams and maturing into the players we thought they would be.”