Rolls-Royce Ruben is in cruise control

RUBEN LOFTUS-CHEEK ambled t hrough t he Volgograd Arena where the media waited to talk to players after the game, approached a group of English journalists and shook hands.

He was grinning and it was hard to blame him. He had just made his competitive England debut, fulfilled an ambition of playing in the World Cup and helped turn the opening game against Tunisia his team’s way in the dying minutes.

Loftus-Cheek is an easy man to like, cool and amiable and hard to fluster. He carries a maturity that is beyond his years. Always has.

And that transfers to the pitch. It was one of the reasons why Gareth Southgate turned to him 10 minutes from the end last Monday. He delivered a beautiful cameo.

He is still only 22 but he was the epitome of assurance. He is a RollsRoyce of a player — big, powerful, smooth and effortlessly elegant. It is easy to see why former England boss Glenn Hoddle has compared him to Michael Ballack.

Against Tunisia he picked his passes. He used his strength to roll defenders. He prompted and probed. Despite t he s t r ai ned circumstances of his introduction, despite the fact that this was the realisation of a dream, only one thing discomforted him.

‘The insects — oh my gosh,’ he said. ‘The first run I did, I got one in my eye and one in my mouth.’

But he made such an impression in such a short time that there are suggestions he will play from the start against Panama today.

It has been quite an ascent. After he made his debut in 2014 for Chelsea, the club he joined when he was eight, Loftus-Cheek made only six Premier League starts in three years.

He was sent on loan to Crystal Palace at the start of last season and, despite a spell out with an ankle injury, flourished so quickly that Southgate picked him.

He made his England debut in a friendly against world champions Germany at Wembley last November and was named man of the match.

He was still an outside bet to make the World Cup squad but an injury t o Al e x Oxl a d e - Chamberl a i n opened the door and word from the England camp is that he did so well in training Southgate found it hard to leave him out.

‘ I knew time was running out against Tunisia,’ said Loftus-Cheek, ‘but I definitely believed from the bench that we could get another one and, when I came on, I just tried to be positive and as attack-minded as possible. We got the corner and thankfully Harry was in the right place at the right time again.

‘ People t alk about me being composed and I’ve never had a problem staying calm. That’s kind of my football. There’s no point panicking in those situations. You need to be in the right frame of mind for when chances come.

‘Where does that calmness come from? My natural demeanour is that I’m a very calm person. Since I was a kid, I’ve always been calm on the ball. I think that comes down to awareness as well. When you have good awareness and you know what’s going on around you, you don’t need to panic. I didn’t feel overawed. Not at all. Gareth has brought me to try to impact the game so there was no way I was going to shy away from the ball.’

Loftus-Cheek’s idol growing up in south London was Zinedine Zidane but even if there are traces of the Frenchman’s grace in the way he plays, England’s new boy did not let the comparisons go too far.

‘You watch your idols play and you take things off them,’ he said, ‘but you can never be anyone else.’

His parents will be in the stadium today and are planning to travel to Kaliningrad, too, for England’s final Group G game.

‘It’s every kid’s dream playing in the World Cup,’ said Loftus-Cheek. ‘Even though it was just 10 minutes or so, you don’t realise what it means when you’re on the pitch but afterwards you take it in.

‘I thought about the time I watched the World Cup at home with my dad when I was 10. I never thought “Maybe I’ll be there in the future”.

‘I wasn’t thinking about trying to force my way into the team when I came on. My goal was simply to try to have an impact.

‘I want to do well for the team and if I end up in the starting team I feel ready for that and I think every other player in the squad is ready. We’ve been really good in training.’

Many believe Loftus- Cheek’s inexperience means we are only seeing a fraction of what he is capable of.

‘ I haven’t worked with many better than him,’ Crystal Palace boss Roy Hodgson said. ‘He just doesn’t have any weaknesses.’

Loftus-Cheek is unlikely to get carried away. He has a reputation for being one of the quieter, more down- to- earth members of the squad. ‘You have the clowns and the Jamie Vardys,’ Loftus-Cheek said, grinning again. ‘But I’m more laid back. That’s just how I am.’

He is staying true to himself. He stuck by that attitude even when he was not getting the breaks. Now he is reaping the rewards.