Arsenal have received a significant injury boost on their first day of their warm-weather Dubai camp, as defender Ben White was pictured in team training.
The Gunners flew out to the Middle East on Thursday, mere hours after a chastening 2-0 EFL Cup semi-final second-leg defeat versus Newcastle United, which sealed a 4-0 aggregate win for the Magpies.
Mikel Arteta's men now have over a week before their next competitive engagement, as they will not take part in this weekend's FA Cup fourth-round matches on account of their elimination at the hands of Manchester United last month.
Arsenal have also bypassed the Champions League playoff round courtesy of their third-placed finish in the league phase, which earned them a direct ticket to the last 16 of the competition.
As a result, the Gunners are not back in action until February 15 - when they face Leicester City in the Premier League lunchtime kickoff - allowing Arteta to take his team to Dubai for their famed mid-season break.
Ben White involved in team training in Dubai
Ben White training with the squad in Dubai today. pic.twitter.com/Awsv5vp7b3
— Charles Watts (@charles_watts) February 7, 2025
Injured duo White and Bukayo Saka were included in the travelling party, and the former was snapped in training with his teammates on Friday as he edges ever closer to a first-team comeback.
The 27-year-old has missed Arsenal's last 21 matches across all competitions due to the knee operation he underwent in November, which was intended to correct an issue he had been playing through for some time.
Arteta was initially hopeful that White might have been able to return by the end of January, and while that did not come to fruition, the former Brighton & Hove Albion man is seemingly on the cusp of being given the green light to return to competitive action.
White could target a comeback for the trip to Leicester on February 15, but Saka (hamstring) and Gabriel Jesus (knee) remain absent, while there is still no timeframe on Takehiro Tomiyasu's return from a knee injury.
The Gunners are also waiting for results on Gabriel Martinelli's scan after the Brazil international came off with a hamstring problem at St James' Park in midweek, depriving Arteta of another attacking option after they failed to bring in any new faces in the January transfer window.
How big a boost would White's return be?
© Imago
Lauded as Arsenal's Mr. Consistent, White may not choose to watch football in his downtime, but as Arteta can attest to, the Englishman is one of the most intense trainers in his ranks.
White had been soldiering on through a knee problem for months on end before the decision was taken to send him for surgery, but even before he went under the knife, he was still putting in exemplary performances week in week out.
There is hope that the defender will return better than ever once his knee is completely healed, and his availability would come as a huge boost to Arsenal and Arteta, whose only right-back option at present is Jurrien Timber.
The Dutchman is a highly competent defender, but Arteta would dearly love to be able to rest him more after his devastating ACL injury last season; however, when Timber has been unavailable or has had to fill in elsewhere, Thomas Partey has not set the world alight at right-back.
White returning to the fold to compete and cover Timber would allow the Gunners boss to ditch the emergency Partey experiment once and for all, and given the importance of the Englishman to Arsenal's attacking sequences on the right-hand side, his return cannot come soon enough.
Ben Knapton
