Arsenal defender Ben White is expected to miss the rest of the season after suffering a right knee ligament injury in Saturday’s Premier League win over West Ham United. The 28-year-old was forced off in the first half on May 10, and the initial assessment is that he has damaged his medial collateral ligament.
Mikel Arteta said after the match that White “doesn’t look good at all,” and the club now believes the defender will not return before the campaign ends. White has made 30 appearances in all competitions this season, but only nine of them have been league starts.
White’s latest setback lands at a bad time for Arsenal, who have two top-flight matches left, at home to Burnley on May 18 and away to Crystal Palace on May 24, before facing Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League final on May 30. His absence would also rule him out of England’s 2026 World Cup campaign opening against Costa Rica on June 10 if the recovery timeline stretches as expected.
The injury is the latest disruption in a season that has already seen White miss three months of the 2024-25 campaign after knee surgery. He came back into the side at right-back when Jurrien Timber was injured, and four of his last five Premier League starts have come in Arsenal’s recent push. White returned to the England squad in March for the first time since leaving the 2022 Qatar World Cup for personal reasons, and featured in friendlies against Uruguay and Japan.
Arsenal are trying to close out a long title chase, with the club bidding to end a 22-year wait for the Premier League crown. Losing White removes one of Arteta’s more reliable defensive options just as the season reaches its decisive stretch, and leaves Arsenal to manage the final weeks without a player who had only recently worked his way back into the national team picture.
