Mikel Arteta has confirmed that Ben White’s absence against Burnley was due to injury, with the club looking to protect him from further issues.

Ben White missed out on the Arsenal squad to face Burnley on Saturday, with Takehiro Tomiyasu coming into the starting lineup to replace him and youth defender Reuell Walters stepping up to the bench.

White was a surprise absentee, with no word that he’d be missing until the night before the game, and Mikel Arteta confirmed that it was due to injury.

“Ben White finished the game against Sevilla with some issues and hasn’t had enough time to recover,” Arteta said before the match, before giving more information in his post-match press conference.

“Yesterday in training he wasn’t comfortable,” Arteta explained. “He didn’t look right, but Ben won’t give you much, he always wants to be on the pitch and always wants to hide anything that is in there.

“But we highlighted it, we noticed in the last few weeks as well something in there, and we wanted to protect him today.

“It was the right call from the physios and the medical department and tomorrow we will assess him and understand what’s happening.”

Considering White was still in training right up until the day before the game, the hope will be that the international break gives him enough time to get over the issue.

White hasn’t been called up by England, so he won’t have any games to focus on until Arsenal return to action on November 25th.

We’ll have to wait and see whether that’s all he needs to recover, or if the problem is something more serious.