Will Ben White ever represent England again?

National World - LocalTV

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.

Transcript

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.

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