Arsenal are stressing about Ben White’s fitness amid a terrible run of defensive injuries in Mikel Arteta’s squad.
Losing White before half-time against Wolves meant that Arteta had to risk William Saliba for 90 minutes, who had just returned from an injury of his own.
Arsenal can’t afford to have any more injuries to their back line, with Cristhian Mosquera and Gabriel Magalhaes still nursing issues.
Pressure is on the Gunners to find a way to juggle managing minutes and covering absences, making White’s substitution against Wolves all the more concerning.
Alan Pardew discusses Ben White’s injuries
The past few years of White’s Arsenal career have been unfortunate, with the right-back suffering a series of injuries to see his game time limited.
Whilst on the sidelines, the Englishman had to watch Jurrien Timber take his position, subsequently losing his spot as a starter.
It’s fair to say it’s been an unlucky period of White’s career, which is how Alan Pardew just described the defender on talkSPORT.
“He’s a bit unlucky, Ben White, isn’t he?” Pardew said.
Would you brand White an injury-prone player, or an unlucky one?
What came next from the former Premier League manager, however, couldn’t be more wrong.
“He seems to have one of those careers where he’s going to be blighted by injury,” Pardew claimed, adding, “Luke Shaw’s very similar.”
White’s recent luck with injuries has been very unlucky; that much is true, but to say that his career is one that could be ‘blighted by injury’ is incorrect.
Before White’s knee surgery in the 2024/25 season, the £50m signing had only missed four Arsenal games due to injury, proving that, in fact, his injury history is quite the opposite.
It’s so wrong to compare Ben White to Luke Shaw
Pardew’s take on White’s injury record was way off the mark, making his comparison to Luke Shaw all the more outrageous.
Transfermarkt’s injury data shows that, in his career, Shaw has missed a whopping 1,679 days and 329 matches due to a total of 29 injuries.
| Luke Shaw | Statistic | Ben White |
| 1679 | Days missed to injury | 176 |
| 329 | Matches missed to injury | 34 |
| 29 | Different injuries | 7 |
White, on the other hand, has missed 176 days to injury, sitting out of 34 games with a grand total of seven career injuries.
Aside from being two incredibly talented English right-backs, there isn’t a lot else to compare White and Shaw with, certainly not injuries.
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