Premier League at AFCON: Which teams will suffer most from absentee players, and which games will they miss?
The AFCON deadline is around the corner for Premier League clubs to release their players for the month-long tournament in Morocco. Who will lose the most players to the competition, and what games could they miss?
Players are required to report to north Africa on December 15, with the tournament kicking off six days later when hosts Morocco face Comoros. However, with Man Utd playing Bournemouth that evening, there is the potential for exceptions to be made.
The final will be held in Rabat almost a month later on January 18, meaning it could be a long Christmas and New Year period for some Premier League sides without a number of key players
Whose squads will be hit the hardest, who has the toughest fixture schedule across that period and who doesn’t have anything to worry about at all?
Which Premier League players are likely to be heading to AFCON?
Most nations are yet to announce their final squads but going by recent selection and injury status, here’s the realistic scenario for how many players each Premier League club could lose to the tournament…
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Which clubs have relied the most on African players this season?
Of the 458 players used in the Premier League, 45 have been from the African continent – with Sunderland the most reliant on their ranks. All seven of their African players arrived in the summer, and all seven look set to be called up to their respective squads for AFCON.
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No surprise, then, that Sunderland have also had the highest percentage of minutes played by African players since their promotion, more than 10 per cent than the next closest, Wolves – who look set to lose four to AFCON this month.
There are no worries for Arsenal, Chelsea, Leeds and Newcastle who haven’t been represented by a single African player between them this season – and will not see their squads impacted by the tournament.
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Sunderland might have given almost a third of their playing minutes to African players but given all of their three attacking signings have struggled for minutes, they find themselves well down the list of goals and assists across the Premier League this season.
Instead, Fulham lead the way on that front, not least after Samuel Chukwueze’s double and Alex Iwobi’s finish in their pulsating 5-4 defeat to Man City.
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Individually, no African player has contributed more to his side’s attacking output than Bournemouth’s Antoine Semenyo, piquing further interest from Premier League suitors ahead of a potential January transfer – when a new release clause will come into being, albeit only briefly.
Whether he stays or goes, for the moment Bournemouth will be happy to keep their flying forward at the Vitality Stadium for the next month, with Ghana finishing bottom of their qualifying group and missing out on AFCON for the first time since 2004.
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Who has the toughest run during the tournament?
On paper at least, Aston Villa have the hardest set of fixtures across the six Premier League rounds played during AFCON.
Man Utd are slated to have the easiest, facing both Wolves and Burnley, ranked 20th and 19th, in that time.
Sunderland, the team losing the most players to the competition, have the triple whammy of facing Man City, Brighton and Crystal Palace across the month.
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Why hasn’t Man Utd’s game with Bournemouth been included?
Man Utd play Bournemouth on Monday Night Football on December 15, after the deadline for clubs to release their players for AFCON.
The club have been in talks over extending that deadline for their three affected players – Noussair Mazraoui, Bryan Mbeumo and Amad Diallo – to feature in that game, but it is still not clear whether that will be possible.
Speaking ahead of their game with Wolves, Ruben Amorim was asked if he had received any clarification about when he may lose the trio and replied: “No, with everything, They are going to play the next game [at Molineux] and that is the only thing I care [about].”
AFCON key dates
- Clubs release players: December 15
- Group stages: December 21-December 31
- Last 16: January 3-January 6
- Quarter-finals: January 9-January 10
- Semi-finals: January 14
- Third-place play-off: January 17
- Final: January 18
