Mikel Arteta hails 'very brave' Ben White as reason for Arsenal star's England exile is revealed | OneFootball

The Arsenal defender is back in contention for the England national team having not featured since late 2022

Back in contention: Ben White

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Mikel Arteta believes Ben White was “very brave” to walk away from England and the Arsenal defender did it because he did not want to let his country down.

Former England manager Gareth Southgate subsequently revealed that the defender had made himself unavailable for selection going forward.

White is now back in contention under new England boss Thomas Tuchel - although the right-back was left out of his first squad on Friday as he is only just returning from injury.

The reason behind White’s England exile has never been officially confirmed, amid reports of a bust-up with Southgate’s assistant Steve Holland, but Arteta has revealed the Arsenal defender was “struggling” at the time and left camp as he did not want to let his country down.

“From what I understand [about] the reasons, it wasn’t about letting somebody down. He was just telling somebody: ‘I don’t want to let you down and this is the way I feel. I think it’s very difficult for me to give you what you need’.

“So I think it was very, completely different. I can tell you because I was very involved in the moment that that happened and I know how Ben felt and that was for me very, very clear the reason why he made that decision, how he was feeling about it and how he was struggling.

“It certainly wasn’t about that (not caring about playing for England). It was about being the opposite, just facing the situation and saying: ‘I cannot handle it now and I am not the best person to represent the country the way I feel right now’.

What he did in my opinion was very brave and not a lot of people would have done it

Mikel Arteta

“So for me it was completely the opposite. I think not a lot of people would do it. What a lot of people would do is hide in that context, in that environment and let time go and nobody talk about it.

“Whatever the outcome is [going forward], what I want is Ben to be happy, that he feels fulfilled and he really feels his next decision.

“And knowing Ben, his decision is not going to be influenced by somebody else - he really needs to feel it.

“If they found that chemistry between Thomas and him that’s great - if he wants to come and Thomas wants him, great, because he has the level and certainly the potential in his career to achieve great things with the national team.”