The 2025 African Cup of Nations (AFCON) gets underway on December 21st, with several Premier League stars set to depart for the winter to represent their nations at the tournament.<\/p>\n
The competition runs from December 21st to January 18th, 2026, with players potentially missing up to six Premier League games depending on how far their nation goes.<\/p>\n
FIFA recently announced that clubs could keep hold of players up to December 15th before letting them jet off to the tournament.<\/p>\n
Several Premier League clubs are set to lose players to AFCON over the winter – here, Flashscore have compiled a list of all the stars set to leave on international duty.<\/p>\n
Arsenal<\/a> – zero players<\/p>\n The Gunners have no players representing African nations in their first-team squad.<\/p>\n Winger Evann Guessand<\/a> is a regular in the Ivory Coast squad and is expected to join up with the current AFCON holders.<\/p>\n Summer signing Amine Adli<\/a> should be called up for hosts Morocco – but the Cherries will retain star player Antoine Semenyo<\/a> after Ghana failed to qualify.<\/p>\n Both Dango Ouattara<\/a> (Burkina Faso) and Frank Onyeka<\/a> (Nigeria) could be called up for their respective countries. Onyeka has been included in the Super Eagles’ preliminary squad.<\/p>\n Carlos Baleba<\/a> has struggled this season but remains a part of Cameroon’s squad for AFCON 2025\/26, while Yankuba Minteh<\/a> will remain with the Seagulls after Gambia failed to qualify.<\/p>\n Burnley – three players<\/p>\n Lyle Foster<\/a> has been included in South Africa’s squad, while Axel Tuanzebe<\/a> has been selected for DR Congo.<\/p>\n Hannibal Mejbri<\/a> is also part of Tunisia’s squad.<\/p>\n Chelsea<\/a> – zero players<\/p>\n Chelsea have no players representing African nations in their first-team squad.<\/p>\n The Eagles have several first-team players who could have headed to Morocco, although a few are injury concerns ahead of the tournament.<\/p>\n Chadi Riad<\/a> (Morocco) and Chieck Doucoure<\/a> (Mali) are yet to feature for the club this season and will miss AFCON, while Ismaila Sarr<\/a> (Senegal) went off injured in their December loss to Manchester United – it remains to be seen if he will be fit.<\/p>\n Christantus Uche<\/a> was in Nigeria’s preliminary squad, but was not selected for the final tournament.<\/p>\n Both Iliman Ndiaye<\/a> and Idrissa Gueye<\/a> are regulars for Senegal and are expected to join up with the squad before the start of the tournament.<\/p>\n Youngster Adam Aznou<\/a> was not called up for the hosts, Morocco.<\/p>\n Fulham<\/a> – three players<\/p>\n Nigerian trio Alex Iwobi<\/a>, Calvin Bassey<\/a> and Samuel Chukwueze<\/a> have all been selected in Nigeria’s squad.<\/p>\n Leeds<\/a> – zero players<\/p>\n Leeds have no players representing African nations in their first-team squad.<\/p>\n Star forward Mohamed Salah<\/a> has, as expected, been called up for Egypt.<\/p>\n Likewise, Omar Marmoush<\/a> has also been confirmed to be part of Egypt’s squad.<\/p>\n Rayan Ait-Nouri<\/a> has barely featured lately but is expected to join up with Algeria.<\/p>\n Three important players are set to head off to AFCON, with Amad Diallo<\/a> (Ivory Coast), Bryan Mbeumo<\/a> (Cameroon) and Noussair Mazraoui<\/a> (Morocco) all called up.<\/p>\n Yoane Wissa<\/a> would normally be part of DR Congo’s team, but was not selected due to his current injury struggles.<\/p>\n Taiwo Awoniyi<\/a> was named in Nigeria’s provisional squad, as was Ola Aina<\/a>, although the defender is expected to be out until January with a hamstring injury – neither was included in their final group.<\/p>\n Both Ibrahim Sangare<\/a> and Willy Boly<\/a> have been called up for the Ivory Coast.<\/p>\n Sunderland will be the club most affected by AFCON, with five out of seven first-team players confirmed to depart.<\/p>\n Noah Sadiki<\/a> and Arthur Masuaku<\/a> have been added to DR Congo’s squad, while Chemsdine Talbi<\/a> (Morocco), Reinildo Mandava<\/a> (Mozambique), and Bertrand Traore<\/a> (Burkina Faso) have also been selected.<\/p>\n Simon Adingra<\/a> (Ivory Coast) has not been called up by his nation.<\/p>\n Club record signing Habib Diarra<\/a> is also set to join up with Senegal if he can overcome a groin injury that has kept him out of action since September.<\/p>\n Pape Matar Sarr<\/a> will likely be selected by Senegal, while it remains to be seen if out-of-favour midfielder Yves Bissouma<\/a> will join up with Mali.<\/p>\n Winger Mohammed Kudus<\/a> represents Ghana, who didn’t qualify for the tournament.<\/p>\n The Hammers are set to miss defensive pairing Aaron Wan-Bissaka<\/a> and El Hadji Malick Diouf<\/a>. The former has been called up for DR Congo, while the latter will likely be selected for Senegal.<\/p>\n Wolves<\/a> – two players<\/p>\n Just two out of a potential five players are set to depart for AFCON, with the club sitting at the bottom of the Premier League.<\/p>\n Marshall Munetsi<\/a> was not selected by Zimbabwe, but\u00a0Tawanda Chirewa<\/a> join up with them, while\u00a0Emmanuel Agbadou<\/a> has been picked by the Ivory Coast.<\/p>\n Tolu Arokodare<\/a> was in Nigeria’s preliminary squad but not the final one, while Jackson Tchatchoua<\/a> was not picked by Cameroon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 2025 African Cup of Nations (AFCON) gets underway on December 21st, with several Premier League stars set…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":344993,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-344992","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344992","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=344992"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344992\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/344993"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=344992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=344992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=344992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}