The African Cup of Nations(AFCON) will begin in January at Gabon and the English Premier league(EPL) would miss the services of the African players who are making a tick for their various club.
All EPL clubs but Burnley have African players and would have to continue playing in the absence of the ‘solid’ players.
There are currently 47 African players plying their trade in the Premier League and their clubs would have to deal with their absence as the EPL would be ongoing.
The likes of Sadio Mane(Liverpool), Riyad Mahrez(Leicester), Andre Dede Ayew (West Ham) and Eric Bailly (Manchester United) would all be in the AFCON for their various countries.
Senegal tops the list of African players in the EPL eight players while Ivory Coast has six players with six, Nigeria has five while Ghana has three players. Â
The likes of Cheikhou Kouyate, Diafra Sakho (both West Ham), Pape Souare(Crystal Palace),Idrissa Gana(Everton), Oumar Niasse(Everton), Sadio Mane (Liverpool), Mame Biram Diouf(Stoke City) and Papi Djilobodji(Sunderland) are all Senegalese players that would abandon their clubs for the AFCON.
Surprisingly however, there is no African goalkeeper in the EPL though there are several midfielders, defenders and strikers.
Already battling to stay up, Sunderland would be the biggest victim with six players leaving the team for AFCON. They include, Papi Djilobodji(Senegal), Wahbi Khazri(Tunisia), Lamine Kone (Ivory Coast), Didier Ndong(Gabon), Steven Pienaar (South Africa) and Victor Anichebe (Nigeria).
The woes of Leicester City could be worsened in January as they would also loose five players to the AFCON including playmaker Mahrez(Algeria), Daniel Amartey and Jeffery Schlupp (both Ghana) and Ahmed Musa.
The likes of Everton, Watford and West Ham have four African players in the EPL while Equatorial Guinea and Libya have a player each at Middlesbrough (Emilio Nsue) and Manchester United have Sadik El Fitouri respectively.
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