The English Premier League will see seventeen of its clubs do without African players who are set to take part in the 34th edition of the Africa Cup of Nations tournament. The tournament which starts this Saturday, January 13, in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, will conclude on February 11th, 2024.
The most affected club in the Premier League is Nottingham Forest who will be without six of its players heading for national duty, while table leaders Liverpool will miss their Egyptian king, Mohamed Salah, the joint-leading league top scorer at 14 goals, as Man City’s Erling Haland.
Meanwhile, Manchester City, Newcastle United and Burnley are the only three teams unaffected by the AFCON tournament with no single player jetting off to Ivory Coast.
This means Citizens could now have an advantage in the title race through January, as their rivals Liverpool, Aston Villa, Tottenham and Newcastle face up to losing key players to AFCON.
Aston Villa will only lose squad player Bertrand Traore to Burkina Faso, and last season’s runner-up; Arsenal will be without Mohamed Elneny (Egypt) while Manchester United will miss two of their starters in goalkeeper Andre Onana and midfielder Sofyan Amrabat who both will head out to represent Cameroon and Morocco respectively.
Premier League clubs and players absent in Janaur due to AFCON
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- Arsenal – Mohamed Elneny (Egypt)
- Aston Villa – Bertrand Traore (Burkina Faso)
- Bournemouth – Dango Ouattara (Burkina Faso), Antoine Semenyo (Ghana)
- Brentford – Yoane Wissa (Congo), Frank Onyeka (Nigeria)
- Brighton – Simon Adingra (Ivory Coast) – injury doubt
- Burnley – No player.
- Chelsea – Nicolas Jackson (Senegal)
- Crystal Palace – Jordan Ayew (Ghana)
- Everton -Idrissa Gana Gueye (Senegal)
- Fulham – Fode Ballo-Toure (Senegal), Calvin Bassey (Nigeria), Alex Iwobi (Nigeria)
- Liverpool – Mohamed Salah (Egypt)
- Luton Town – Issa Kabore (Burkina Faso)
- Man City – No players.
- Manchester United – Andre Onana (Cameroon), Sofyan Amrabat (Morocco)
- Newcastle – No player
- Nottingham Forest – Serge Aurier (Ivory Coast), Willy Boly (Ivory Coast), Ibrahim Sangare (Ivory Coast), Cheikou Kouyate (Senegal), Moussa Niakhate (Senegal), Ola Aina (Nigeria)
- Sheffield United – Anis Ben Slimane (Tunisia), Yasser Larouci (Algeria)
- Tottenham – Pape Sarr (Senegal), Yves Bissouma (Mali)
- West Ham – Nayef Aguerd (Morocco), Mohammed Kudus (Ghana)
- Wolves – Rayan Ait-Nouri (Algeria), Boubacar Traore (Mali)
