Why Arsenal star Ben White isn't playing vs Fulham as injury blow confirmed

Ben White has not been named in the Arsenal matchday squad for the Premier League match against Fulham on Tuesday. Bukayo Saka is deemed fit enough to make the bench after missing four months out with injury.

White himself has struggled for fitness this season but had made a return prior to the international break. The defender has not started a match since November.

Arsenal added to their team news post on X (formerly Twitter) "Ben White misses out." He was an unused substitute against both Manchester United and Chelsea before the two-and-a-half week hiatus.

”He had a little niggle two days ago," Mikel Arteta explained pre-match. "Yesterday we tried, he wasn’t feeling right, so we decided not to put him in the squad today.”

White only played the final stages of February's draw and defeat to Nottingham Forest and West Ham respectively. In his place at full-back is Jurrien Timber.

Elsewhere in the squad and Ethan Nwaneri starts on the right as Saka is eased back into the mix. Gabriel Martinelli is on the left with Mikel Merino continuing on up front.

The midfield is at full strength with Declan Rice operating with Thomas Partey and Martin Odegaard. Myles Lewis-Skelly is in at left-back with Riccardo Calafiori out for a number of weeks.

David Raya is then behind William Saliba and Gabriel Magalhaes as usual. Jim Gower, 20, makes the bench. He is an academy midfielder from Hale End.

As for White, he has only managed 16 appearances for Arsenal in total this season and missed nearly three months with a knee injury. That required surgery and he has been carefully managed since then.

Saka is now being integrated following his own lengthy absence. He suffered a hamstring injury in December away at Crystal Palace.

Speaking on Monday, ahead of the game, Arteta said of Saka: "Well, the careful thing is already done. So now it's about putting him in the grass in the right moments. But he's pushing because he really wants it.

"We have respected the time frame, we have done everything and we have to hold him back even. So he's ready to go." He added on Calafiori: "Ricardo unfortunately picked up an injury again with the national team. Really unfortunate the way it happened. It could have been much worse.

"So, hopefully it's going to be a matter of weeks. But we'll have to see how that injury evolves. And Jurrien, yeah, he was ill for a long period, quite badly. He's felt much better in the last few days."

Arsenal can narrow the gap to Liverpool to nine points for at least 24. The Reds face Everton on Wednesday in the second Merseyside derby of the season, this time at Anfield.

Join the football.london Arsenal WhatsApp channel

Join our Arsenal WhatsApp channel and get all the latest breaking news, opinion, podcasts and in-depth stories from football.london's dedicated Arsenal writers straight to your phone!

By following this free service you will be the first to know the news from the Emirates Stadium as it happens, when it happens.

To join our dedicated Arsenal channel, all you have to do is click this link and you can join thousands of others following our Gunners coverage!

If you're curious, you can check out our privacy policy here.