Following his departure from the World Cup camp in 2022, and refusal to be selected in March of this year, Daniel Wales analyses whether Ben White will ever play for England again, now that Gareth Southgate and Steve Holland are no longer in charge.
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00:00England fell just short of an historic triumph at Euro 2024 in July, but one player who was
00:08not there, trying to make the nation proud, was Ben White of Arsenal. Gareth Southgate
00:14revealed back prior to the March Internationals that he was unavailable for selection to the
00:19national team.
00:49He took two Euros when he was at Brighton, a player that we took to the World Cup. I
00:56spoke to him post-Catard because I was keen to pick him and there was clearly reticence
01:03on his side. I don't know fully why that is, but I have to respect that. I wouldn't leave
01:12the door open for him because he's a good player and I think he's a player that can
01:16make a difference for England, but he's not available to us. The only other thing I would
01:23say is there is no issue between us at all. I also should say there's never any issue
01:33with Steve Hodden because that has been mentioned in articles and I don't like that. People
01:41can talk about me and say I have to accept that things get said and are false about me
01:50and for whatever reason in this role you have to almost stop at that, but I'm not prepared
01:56for that to happen for a key member of my coaching team because that is not the reason
02:02that Ben is unavailable for selection. The question now is whether Ben White will make
02:09himself available for selection again, but if so, he faces competition from Kyle Walker
02:14of Manchester City, Rhys James of Chelsea, who has faced various injury issues in recent
02:20times that prevented him going to the Euros. There is also Kieran Trippier of Newcastle
02:26United who, despite playing much of the tournament at left-back, is still well thought of in
02:31the right-back department. His team-mate at Newcastle, Tino Livramento, is a possible
02:36upcomer for the spot too, both he and his left-back partner at Newcastle Lewis Hall
02:41are well thought of. Until then, England will have to put in place a new manager and with
02:47no appointment yet on the horizon for the Three Lions ahead of the September Internationals,
02:52it remains to be seen whether Ben White will come back into contention to play for the
02:57team.