August 24 2017

Ruben Loftus-Cheek

RUBEN LOFTUS-CHEEK is among the Crystal Palace players called up for international duty.

The on-loan Chelsea midfielder has been selected for England's U21 squad that will play Holland and Latvia on September 1 and September 5.

LOFTUS-CHEEK, 21, has 17 caps for the young Lions and has also appeared at various youth levels for his country.

Palace midfielder Nya Kirby is in England's U18 squad for the FIFA Under-17 World Cup fixtures against against Brazil and South Africa.

The 17-year-old left Tottenham last summer after it was reported that Chelsea tried to tap him up which upset Spurs chief Daniel Levy.

He was regarded as one of Spurs' brightest young talents and hopes to get a chance with the Eagles first team under boss Frank de Boer.

Fit-again James McArthur is back in the Scotland squad for the upcoming internationals against Lithuania and Malta.

He returned to the Palace line-up as a substitute away at Liverpool last Saturday after suffering a hamstring injury in pre-season.

McArthur is likely to make the Scots side in the World Cup qualifiers on September 1 and September 4.

The Glasgow-born midfielder netted two goals in his first start of the season in Palace's 2-1 EFL Cup win over Ipswich on Tuesday.

"They were definitely two of the best I have scored and even though shooting isn’t really part of my game that I work on, it was nice to strike both well and get the goals," he said.

"They were good opponents and they did well, especially as they had a lot of youngsters, but we limited them to a couple of chances in the first half and in the second they tired a bit which meant the game started to open up."

More Palace players are expected to be picked this week for September's World Cup qualifiers. Fancy having a flutter on the games? Check out the latest odds at 888sport.