Ben White isn't your average footballer. He loves playing the game, but doesn't particularly enjoy watching it. "It's weird," former Spain international Cesc Fabregas said on the Planet Premier League podcast, "it is not something that happens very often. Maybe only five per cent of the players are like that. But it is what it is, and we have to respect it."
Of course, that's not the reality of the situation at all. Fabregas is right in the sense that we should respect White's "weird" relationship with football, but plenty of people don't. Several Daily Mail writers and readers have already got themselves all riled up by the Arsenal defender's refusal to make himself available for England selection - and that's fine. It's ridiculous, but that's their right.
But they must then understand that White is just as entitled to turn down the chance to represent his country.
