Ben White has been ruled out for the rest of the season and is a doubt for the World Cup after suffering a serious knee injury during Arsenal’s game against West Ham United at the London Stadium on Sunday
The defender limped off after just 28 minutes in East London and was replaced by Martin Zubimendi. The agonising look on White’s face appeared to suggest that the setback was serious, and this has now been confirmed after the player underwent scans.
According to SunSport, the 28-year-old has sustained a suspected MCL injury, and will subsequently miss the Gunners’ final two Premier League matches against Burnley and Crystal Palace.
This also rules him out of the Champions League final against Paris Saint-Germain at the end of May. The Sun’s report also indicates that his prospective place at this summer’s World Cup is also in doubt.
Mikel Arteta now has a huge decision to make regarding who he opts to use at right-back in the remaining three matches. Jurrien Timber is said to be nearing a return, although it’s not clear whether the Dutchman will be ready to play in such significant games.
Cristhian Mosquera is the obvious choice, although the Spaniard’s lack of experience and offensive quality may prompt Arteta to think outside of the box.
Arsenal have been ridiculously unfortunate with injuries this season
Last season, Arsenal’s campaign was derailed by injury issues. This term, things haven’t been an awful lot better on this front for Arteta.
The Gunners have been without a number of key players for long stretches of the season. The likes of White, Jurrien Timber, Riccardo Calafiori, Mikel Merino, Martin Odegaard, Bukayo Saka, Noni Madueke, Kai Havertz, Gabriel Jesus and Max Dowman have all spent significant time on the sidelines.
The difference this year is that Arsenal have had greater squad depth to deal with these issues. They added eight players to their ranks last summer, without selling anyone of significance, and this has meant that they’ve been able to cope with these absences.
As the graphic above shows, only Tottenham have managed fewer injury issues than Arsenal in the Premier League this season. Arteta deserves huge credit for keeping the Gunners at the top of the pile despite these persistent fitness concerns.
