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Thomas Tuchel believes Ben White “deserves a second chance” but says the returning England defender has to “clear the air” with team-mates on his first call-up since the 2022 World Cup.The 28-year-old was part of Sir Gareth Southgate’s Euro 2020 squad and then went to the World Cup in Qatar, only to leave during the knockout phase due to what the Football Association called “personal reasons”.Reports later emerged of an alleged bust-up with assistant Steve Holland – something repeatedly denied by Southgate, who revealed in March 2024 that the Arsenal defender had made himself unavailable for England.Tuchel confirmed this time last year that the right-back wanted to return to the fold and an injury to Jarell Quansah has seen him drafted into the 35-man squad as a replacement for the friendlies against Uruguay and Japan.

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00:00Just on a slightly different question, you've mentioned before about the importance of cherishing coming to England and respecting the
00:07shirt and so forth.
00:09You asked about Ben White earlier. Ben was unavailable for three years to not play for England.
00:17Why do you think a player that made that decision deserves the opportunity to play for England at a World
00:22Cup?
00:25Why do I think that? First of all, I think everyone deserves a second chance.
00:30Second, I don't know exactly what happened.
00:33I was also not 100% interested in that because I wanted to open a new page and a new
00:40book and a new opportunity.
00:41Once I asked Ben if he would be ready to play for me and for England, he straight away, without
00:46hesitation, said he would love that and he would love to come back.
00:51He is desperate to come back. When the chance opened up for him with the injury of Gerald Kwanza very
00:59late,
00:59the reaction came within seconds and was very euphoric and very positive, very emotional about it.
01:05That showed me that he really means it. The way he behaves and the way he trained here in camp
01:10is exceptional.
01:12Very, very good. It shows his quality. I think it is necessary that he clears the air with his teammates.
01:20And I think he does and I think he will once players come back who were in the World Cup
01:28together with him.
01:29And then we go from there. Let's see how it goes and let's see how he feels, if he feels
01:35as confident and as comfortable as he thought he would.
01:38Until now this is the case and he has my support. Hopefully he gets the support from the spectators and
01:49we take it from there.
01:50Let's see.
01:51Let's see.
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