White leaves camp for ‘personal reasons’

Ben White has gone home from the World Cup for personal reasons and is not expected to return to the England camp.

The 25-year-old defender was included in Gareth Southgate’s 26-man squad for Qatar following an impressive start to the season with Arsenal.

White did not feature in England’s first two Group B matches and missed Tuesday’s 3-0 win against Wales through illness.

An FA statement last night read: “Ben White has left England’s training base in Al Wakrah and returned home for personal reasons. The Arsenal defender is not expected to return to the squad for the remainder of the tournament. We ask that the player’s privacy is respected at this moment in time.”

No replacements can be made at this stage of the World Cup and Arsenal shared the FA’S statement on their social media channels, along with the caption “We’re all with you, Ben” and a love heart emoji.

Southgate, meanwhile, insists his squad is full of “belief” ahead of the match against Senegal on Sunday – their first knockout World Cup tie since an extra-time semifinal loss to Croatia in 2018.

“I think there’s a different mentality about the whole group,” said the England boss, inset. “There’s more belief.

“Our objectives are different. In Russia, we were just thinking about, ‘Could we win a knockout game?’ There’s more expectation now, but more confidence and more experience of big matches. The spirit of the team is good and actually no yellow cards, which is a really good position.”