From The Pavilion

More of a neutral pronoun.

trying to avoid him/his pronoun but that line is a bit clunky

I'll jump in here. When approving commentary lines I am using they/them instead of his/him which is what is often submitted. So you can pin this wording on me.

It is odd for the non-English speaker to read that and realise we're talking about only one person I'll admit. But using the word they is a way to refer to one human being if you don't know who they are. "When we appoint a prime minister they will be in charge of the country" for example. It is a standard phrase in English.