Chelsea captain John Terry has backed manager Jose Mourinho in his scathing assessment of Ruben Loftus-Cheek recently.
The youngster, 19, came under fire from Mourinho for his work rate in the 1-0 post-season friendly win over Sydney FC on Tuesday.
And Terry can see no harm in the Portuguese’s criticism, insisting that Loftus-Cheek must “take it on the chin” and learn from it.
“He’s a young boy and he needs to take it on the chin. If you want to get into this team you need to be very good and, secondly, you need to be mentally strong,” Terry said.
“The manager picks his times when he digs people out; that’s part of his learning curve and he’s got the offseason to think about that now.
“He’s made a couple of games, come on a couple of times and started a couple of games late in the season, but for him to make that next step and become a regular, it doesn’t happen easily.
“It’s going to be hard work for him.”