Gareth Southgate has revealed in-form Arsenal defender Ben White does not want to be selected by England at the moment.
The 26-year-old has starred for the Premier League leaders this season but has not featured in the national team squad since the 2022 World Cup.
White returned early from Qatar for what the Football Association called “personal reasons” and reports later emerged of an alleged bust-up with England assistant Steve Holland.
Gareth Southgate
Southgate denied any such fall-out on Thursday, when he had hoped to include the defender in his squad for March’s Euro 2024 warm-up friendlies against Brazil and Belgium.
“Look, it’s absolutely the question you should ask because clearly on form I can’t sit here and say he doesn’t deserve to be in,” the England boss said.
“We, (FA technical director) John McDermott, had a call from (Arsenal sporting director) Edu last week to say that Ben didn’t want to be considered for England squads at this time.
“For me, that’s a great shame. He’s a player I really like. He’s a player that we took to a Euros when he was at Brighton, a player that we took to the World Cup.
“I spoke to him post-Qatar because I was keen to pick him and there was clearly reticence on his side. I don’t know fully why that is, but I have to respect that.
Ben White
“I want to leave the door open for him because he’s a good player and I think he’s a player who can make a difference for England.
“But he’s not available to us and so the only other thing I would say is there is no issue between us at all.
“And also I should say there’s never any issue with Steve Holland because that has sort of been mentioned in articles and I don’t like that.
“People can talk about me, and I have to accept that things get said that are
Read on m.allfootballapp.com