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Lee Carsley said he has no plans to contact Ben White over a possible England call-up and believes the responsibility lies with the Arsenal defender to make himself available.
Carsley’s predecessor Gareth Southgate said in March that the Football Association’s technical director John McDermott was told in a phone call from Arsenal sporting director Edu that White did not want to be considered for England.
It has been widely reported that White had a disagreement with Southgate’s assistant Steve Holland while part of the squad at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
White was sent home from that tournament for “personal reasons” as both the FA and Southgate subsequently denied there was an issue within the camp.
After Carsley began his interim role as Southgate’s successor with back-to-back 2-0 UEFA Nations League wins away at Republic of Ireland and home to Finland, the 50-year-old hinted he would look to make changes to the squad for next month’s friendly matches.
“I’m thinking about the game tonight, but it wasn’t long after coming off the pitch where I was thinking ‘right, I need to start thinking about next one now’,” said Carsley on Tuesday. “How that might look and what players are going to be coming into form, and how that’s going to pan out. So, yeah, competition for places within this squad is very high.
“I think you will see some movement and I think it’s important that we keep freshening it up, we keep moving the squad forward.”
Asked about whether that could involve speaking to White about his potential availability, Carsley said: “I’ve not planned to [contact him], no. We spoke about this in the squad selection. Every player that’s eligible to play for England is in with a chance.
“As far as I was aware, he was asked to be not contacted. So, if that changes, then that’ll change.”
Pushed on whether the onus was on White to change the situation, Carsley replied: “Yeah I think it is important that we’ve got real competition all over the pitch and the more players we’ve got available to pick from, the better it is.”
White only has four England caps to his name, but is now established as one of the Premier League’s top right-backs in an Arsenal side that challenged Manchester City for the title in the past two seasons.
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