Arsenal star Ben White has left England's training base in Al Wakrah and returned home for personal reasons. The 25-year-old defender is not expected to return to the squad for the remainder of the World Cup.
He didn't feature in the Three Lions' group stage fixtures as Gareth Southgate led the nation to qualification into the knockout stages. England will now see out the remainder of the tournament with a 25-man squad, which is still larger than in past World Cups, because it is now too late for Southgate to call-up a replacement.
A statement from the FA reads: "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."
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The Three Lions will now focus on Sunday when they lock horns with Senegal in the round of 16. With White able to feature at right-back and centre-half, Southgate's defensive options in said positions consist of Kieran Trippier, Kyle Walker, Trent Alexander-Arnold, John Stones, Harry Maguire, Conor Coady and Eric Dier.
While many of the above are yet to feature in Qatar, the England boss has said that he will not freely hand out caps to his fringe players. Speaking to the press ahead of the clash with Wales, Southgate said: "That's always a challenge and we [do] have 26 players (now 25)," Southgate said when asked about keeping the fringe players happy.
"But we are at a major tournament, it's not about giving caps out. We want to go as far as we possibly can. Players support each other and some will be disappointed if they're not playing.
"In other camps throughout the year, we try to give people game time where we can, but when you're in a World Cup, you can't be thinking in that way unless you've already qualified and have a game with a different approach. We are fortunate we have many professionals who get on with that.
"I've done that myself by going to a tournament without many minutes at all. The [back-up] job is to train well, support the guys and be ready for your moment when it comes. That's been part of our story in the previous two tournaments when the squad have been ready and supported themselves throughout."
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