Arsenal head to Budapest without Ben White as Timber's race to face PSG runs out of road
Arsenal fly to Budapest later this week without Ben White, with Jurrien Timber a serious doubt and Mikel Merino back in the squad picture five days out from Saturday's Champions League final against Paris Saint-Germain. PSG, meanwhile, head into the same fixture with a question mark over Achraf Hakimi.
Ben White: ruled out before the final
White's season ended at the London Stadium on 10 May. The defender went off in the first half of Arsenal's 1-0 win over West Ham after a collision with Crysencio Summerville and was later confirmed to have a significant medial knee ligament injury. Arsenal said the 28-year-old will not require surgery, and the club's medical staff are working toward a pre-season return, but the final, the Premier League run-in and England's World Cup involvement are all gone for him. Mikel Arteta has lost his first-choice right-back and the Saka-White partnership that Arsenal had leaned on down that flank all season.
Timber against the clock
Jurrien Timber has been out since picking up a groin issue in Arsenal's Premier League match against Everton on 14 March. The right-back has missed 13 games since, and the comeback has been slower than Arteta initially hoped. The Arsenal manager said last week that Timber was a step behind Merino in the recovery queue, and Netherlands boss Ronald Koeman conceded that "it doesn't look rosy at the moment" when asked about the final. Timber himself says there is hope. The honest reading is that any minutes in Budapest are a bonus rather than a plan.
Merino back in training
The cleaner update is at the other end of the squad. Mikel Merino, who has been out since January with a hairline stress fracture in his right foot that even specialists called unusual, returned to full training before the final round of the Premier League. He told the club he is no longer thinking about the foot. He is unlikely to start a match this big after four months out, but Arteta now has him as a bench option, which had not been a given two weeks ago.
PSG's right-back puzzle
The injury complication is not all on one side. PSG's Achraf Hakimi has been working his way back from a right-hamstring problem picked up in the first leg of the semi-final against Bayern Munich on 28 April. Reports out of France over the weekend suggest he will be available for the matchday squad but is not expected to start, with Luis Enrique reluctant to throw him into a final after weeks without competitive minutes. Up front, Ousmane Dembélé has finished the league season with 10 goals in 22 Ligue 1 appearances and trains with the group, so PSG's bigger names from earlier in the run are intact at the top end of the pitch.
Kick-off in Budapest is 18:00 CEST, or 9.30 pm IST, at the 67,000-seat Puskás Aréna. Arsenal are in their first Champions League final since 2006. PSG are the holders, going for back-to-back European titles for the first time in the club's history.
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