Thomas Tuchel reveals Arsenal defender Ben White’s new stance on England | OneFootball

Ben White would “love” to play for England but isn’t yet ready after only recently recovering from injury.

The Arsenal defender has not played for England since leaving the Qatar World Cup for personal reasons, and turned down a place in Gareth Southgate’s squad at Euro 2024. Southgate denied reports that White had fallen out with his assistant manager, Steve Holland.

But Thomas Tuchel, the new England manager who officially began his role in January, says White “wants to be back” in the fold.

The defender was not included in Tuchel’s first England squad, announced on Friday ahead of upcoming World Cup qualifiers against Albania and Latvia at Wembley, but the manager insisted it was simply a matter of fitness, with White making only two brief Premier League appearances since undergoing knee surgery in November.

Asked if White had turned down a call-up to the squad, Tuchel said: “Absolutely not. He would love to be back, it’s just a bit too early to be back for him given the serious injury that he had. We are monitoring the progress. Now it’s just a question of getting back – he wants to be back.”

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Ben White has not played for England since the 2022 World Cup (PA Wire)

Tuchel did select White’s teenaged teammate Myles Lewis-Skelly, who has impressed this season at left-back under Mikel Arteta.

“I am always impressed with Myles. He plays for the second best team in the country at the moment. Mikel Arteta picks him regularly so this was very impressive from the very start.

“I can understand if it looks like we fast-forward a career already on fast-forward. I can assure you that the talks we have had had a parental vibe, a protective vibe. We thought about, is it our responsibility to not take him? But in the end with injuries [at left-back], and with the maturity, we decided to take him.

“He can handle the pressure. He makes himself available. He proves the point on a weekly basis. He is available three times a week in one of the best teams in Europe. He can handle the heat.”