After impressing in his limited game time for Chelsea this term, Ruben Loftus-Cheek is in contention to start Sunday's fixture against Crystal Palace, with whom he spent a loan spell last season.
The 22 year old was pivotal in the 'Eagles' escape from relegation, which earned him an England call up for the World Cup this past summer, and his former boss Roy Hodgson was full of praise for the player ahead of their reunion this weekend.
Hodgson is realistic in his expectations of a return to Selhurst Park for Loftus-Cheek, as he believes that Chelsea will not make the mistake of once again releasing a "top class player" from their squad.
However, Hodgson did not that he would always welcome Loftus-Cheek back to Palace should he either come available or decide to leave Chelsea.
In his pre-match press conference ahead of Palace's trip to Stamford Bridge, Hodgson said: "I said to him 'Don't forget, there's always a place for you here; if you are moving on we'd love to have you back, but I'm now expecting you to go to Russia to do extremely well for England and I'm expecting Chelsea to welcome you back with open arms. I'll be surprised if you come back here, but you know you're always welcome'.
The Palace manager also took time to note that Loftus-Cheek will not be the only player he will be reuniting with this weekend; Chelsea's Gary Cahill and Ross Barkley worked with Hogson during his time managing the England national team.
And so, on the topic of seeing some of his other former players, Hodgson noted: " I'll be happy to see him, whether he plays or not. If you wish people well you shouldn't really wish for them to be dropped from the team, but I'll be happy to see him, happy to see Ross Barkley, and happy to see Gary Cahill, who even captained England during my time there. That's three people I've had close working relationships with I'll be pleased to see again, and fearful of the qualities they'll bring to the game."
Since Loftus-Cheek departed back to his parent club Chelsea, Hodgson has been forced to somewhat reinvent his side; further without the injured Christian Benteke and Conor Wickham, Palace face a tall order in getting a result against one of the league leaders away from home.
When asked if he felt frustrated at seeing Loftus-Cheek become a squad player at Chelsea in comparison to his key role with Palace, Hodson said: "Quite a lot of players you'd quite like to see here you could get the same sort of feeling about. Him being a south east London-born footballer gave us a little bit of a homegrown element, so there's perhaps more a feeling of 'What a shame he's not here' than there maybe would be with another player."
Hodgson concluded: "I wasn't at all surprised that he didn't go out on loan anywhere, and we certainly were fully aware of the situation and fully understanding of the situation. In Sarri's and Chelsea's position I'd have done exactly the same thing."