says has been struggling with an injury for the past few weeks and will need to be assessed, with the defender having ‘hidden’ the issue.
The 26-year-old was a surprise absentee from the matchday squad for Saturday’s 3-1 victory over Burnley in the , with Arteta saying pre-match that he from the midweek win over Sevilla in the Champions League.
But at his post-match press conference, Arteta suggested there might be a bigger issue at play and says the medical team had noticed something was up – though White had tried to keep playing regardless.
‘Yesterday [Friday] in training he wasn’t comfortable, he didn’t look right,’ explained Arteta when asked about White’s absence against Burnley.
‘But Ben won’t give you much. He always wants to be on the pitch and he wants to hide anything that is there.
‘But we highlighted that we noticed in the last few weeks as well something happening there and we wanted to protect him today.
‘It was the right call from the physios, the medical department, and tomorrow we will assess him and understand what’s happening.’
Arsenal took the lead against Burnley in first-half stoppage time through Leandro Trossard but were pegged back shortly after the restart, only to retake the lead once again within minutes as William Saliba nodded home from a corner.
Oleksandr Zinchenko wrapped up the three points with a superb finish though the Gunners finished the contest with 10 men after Fabio Vieira was sent off while Jorginho was also forced off with an injury.
Asked about the Italian midfielder, Arteta said: ‘He had a few bad cuts I think so they could not sort it out on the pitch so they decided to take him out. Hopefully he is fine.
‘I think he was really good again today, the way this guy is competing, coaching and supporting the team in every way, I am really happy with him.’
On his side’s performance, he added: ‘Really happy with the result, especially the performance. After playing 72 hours ago and with the last three games.
‘How we played against Newcastle, against Sevilla and today. How dominant we were against a team that is very difficult to dominate. The amount of situations that we generated I think we fully deserved to win the game.’
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