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Chelsea legend Ray Wilkins passed on in april after suffering cardiac arrest, and Chelsea midfielder Ruben Loftus-Cheek still has the former Blues assistant boss in mind.

Speaking at England’s training base on Russia’s Gulf of Finland coast ahead of England’s opening game against Tunisia, Loftus-Cheek said both he and Gary Cahill, will be using memories of Wilkins as inspiration.

Photo: REX FEATURES

“All these games we play here and how far we get, we do it for Ray,” he said.

“He’s been such an icon for Chelsea and the game of football. I think a lot of players will miss him. For sure, we’ll do it for him.’

Loftus-Cheek also remembered training as a 14-year-old with Wilkins, then an assistant manager at Chelsea, Loftus-Cheek said: “I was on something called day release, we left school and did some learning at Cobham, at training. I was about to go home and Neil Bath, the academy manager, said, ‘You’re not going home, you’re training with the first team’.

“I couldn’t wait to get going. I was obviously nervous but then Ray Wilkins paired me up with Didier Drogba in a one-on-one drill. I was just really excited to get home and tell my parents.”