Thirty-two Premier League stars will represent their respective national teams at the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations, but which clubs will feel their absence the most?
The 2025 Africa Cup of Nations begins on Sunday 21 December, and the attention of some Premier League players will divert from club football to trying to help their country to the prestigious AFCON title in Morocco.Overall, 32 Premier League players have been selected to represent their national teams at AFCON 2025, but some clubs will be hit harder than others. Here, we look at the potential impact that the call-ups to the tournament across December and January might have on the 20 Premier League teams.
Sunderland: Six Players
Sunderland have enjoyed an excellent start to life back in the Premier League, with Sunday’s derby win over Newcastle United taking them to 26 points from 16 games. That means they’ve already won more points than all three promoted clubs did in the whole of 2024-25 – Leicester (25), Ipswich (22) and Southampton (12) – with less than half the season complete.
They will have some key absentees over the next month, however. Six Sunderland players will be with their national teams at AFCON 2025, representing nearly a fifth of all Premier League players at the tournament, and double the tally of any other club.
In losing Bertrand Traoré (Burkina Faso), Arthur Masuaku (DR Congo), Noah Sadiki (DR Congo), Chemsdine Talbi (Morocco), Reinildo Mandava (Mozambique) and Habib Diarra (Senegal), Sunderland will be without players who have played a cumulative 4,412 minutes and 61 appearances in the Premier League this season – a higher total than any other side.Sadiki has missed just 26 minutes of Sunderland’s Premier League season and looks to be their biggest miss of all. The tireless midfielder, who joined this summer from Belgian side Union Saint-Gilloise, plays a key role in building possession from deep-lying positions on the pitch alongside Granit Xhaka, while being an adept ball-winner too.
Sadiki (8) is one of Sunderland’s top seven chance creators in the Premier League this season, as are fellow AFCON absentees Traoré (8) and Talbi (7).
The only consolation for Black Cats boss Régis Le Bris is he’s avoided losing a seventh player to AFCON 2025, with Côte d’Ivoire leaving Simon Adingra out of their final squad for the tournament.
Burnley, Fulham and Manchester United: Three Players
Manchester United pair Bryan Mbeumo and Amad Diallo made their final Premier League appearances for Man Utd before heading off to AFCON in Monday’s entertaining 4-4 draw with Bournemouth.
Amad scored the Red Devils’ opening goal, while Mbeumo was a threat – albeit wasteful – throughout, reminding United fans how much they’ll miss the pair while they participate in the tournament.
Mbeumo is United’s top scorer in the Premier League this season with six goals, while he’s accumulated the highest xG total (5.6) in their squad. He’s also their third-most prolific creator from open play in the competition this season (17), behind Amad (25) and Bruno Fernandes (30).
Noussair Mazraoui will also be heading to AFCON 2025 to represent hosts Morocco, but the full-back has played just 442 minutes of Premier League action this season.
Fulham are losing Nigerian trio Alex Iwobi, Calvin Bassey and Samuel Chukwueze, with Marco Silva hoping they don’t go as deep into the tournament as expected. Should Nigeria reach the final on 18 January, as they did at the last AFCON, Fulham will be without them for at least six Premier League games.
Both Iwobi and Bassey have featured in all 16 of Fulham’s league matches this season, with former Arsenal midfielder Iwobi their leading chance creator in the competition in 2025-26 (23). Chukwueze has become a key part of Fulham’s side in the last month and has five goal involvements in his last five Premier League appearances (two goals, three assists) – only Harry Wilson (eight) has more league goal involvements than him (six) overall this season.
Burnley also lose three players to AFCON 2025, with a defender (Axel Tuanzebe), a midfielder (Hannibal Mejbri) and a forward (Lyle Foster) off to represent DR Congo, Tunisia and South Africa respectively.
Brentford, Everton, Manchester City, Nottingham Forest, Tottenham Hotspur, West Ham United and Wolverhampton Wanderers: Two Players
Of the seven Premier League clubs who are losing two players to AFCON 2025, it’s arguably Everton who will feel the biggest impact.
Iliman Ndiaye and Idrissa Gueye are both departing to represent Senegal, and both players have featured regularly for David Moyes’ side in 2025-26.
Ndiaye is one of Everton’s main attacking threats, with no Toffees player having more Premier League goal involvements than him (6) this season, and only Jack Grealish (28) creating more chances than the Senegal international (16).
Both players also feature in the top four for Everton this season when it comes to open-play sequence involvements leading to a shot, with only Grealish (73) ahead of Ndiaye (54), and Gueye in fourth with 45.
West Ham will be losing both their first-choice full-backs to AFCON 2025, with Aaron Wan-Bissaka representing DR Congo and El Hadji Malick Diouf named in Senegal’s squad.
The Hammers aren’t a side who frequently fire in crosses from open play – their tally of 176 is the fifth lowest in the Premier League – but when they do, Diouf (48) and Wan-Bissaka (20) account for nearly 40% of them. Diouf is also West Ham’s leading assist provider in the league this season (3), while these two rank first (Wan-Bissaka: 21) and second (Diouf: 16) for interceptions for their club in 2025-26.
Manchester City are losing two players who haven’t played much Premier League football in 2025-26, with Omar Marmoush (206 mins) and Rayan Aït-Nouri (205) off to represent Egypt and Algeria respectively at AFCON 2025. They’ve played more than both Yves Bissouma (Tottenham and Mali) and Willy Boly (Nottingham Forest and Côte d’Ivoire), though, as both of them are heading to Morocco without having played a single minute in the Premier League this term.
Forest will undoubtedly feel the absence of Ibrahim Sangaré, though. The Côte d’Ivoire midfielder has appeared in 13 of their 16 Premier League games this season and ranks inside the top five Forest players for both tackles (third, with 27) and interceptions (fifth, with 10). He also signed off in style in the 3-0 win over Spurs on Sunday, becoming the first Forest player to provide a goal and two assists in a Premier League game since Steve Stone vs QPR in May 1996.
Forest could have lost even more players, but Nigerian pair Ola Aina and Taiwo Awoniyi didn’t receive call-ups to their national team. With both carrying injuries, though, Sean Dyche might not be able to use them much over the busy Christmas and New Year period anyway.
Brighton & Hove Albion, Crystal Palace and Liverpool: One Player
Although Brighton, Crystal Palace and Liverpool are only seeing one player each go to AFCON 2025, all three are losing a particularly influential figure in their side.
Mohamed Salah is arguably the biggest name playing at the tournament, heading to Morocco after a very public airing of his displeasure at how he’s been treated at Liverpool in recent weeks.
After being the key man in their 2024-25 Premier League title win, Salah’s had a more reduced role in the last month under Arne Slot.
It’s been quite clear his performance levels have dropped this season, but Salah has still been involved in seven of Liverpool’s Premier League goals (four goals, three assists) and has the joint-most shot involvements (68, level with Mbeumo) among English top-flight players heading to AFCON.
Eight of those came in Liverpool’s 2-0 win over Brighton at the weekend, when he assisted Hugo Ekitiké’s second goal. That saw him reach 277 Premier League goal involvements for Liverpool, which broke the outright competition record by a player at a single club.
Ismaïla Sarr made his return to Crystal Palace’s side in the weekend defeat to Manchester City following a short-term injury, but he heads off again for a month after being selected by Senegal. A key player for both club and country, Sarr (8) trails only Jean-Philippe Mateta (9) for goals in all competitions this season at Palace.
Carlos Baleba has played in all 16 of Brighton’s Premier League matches this season, after missing just four across the whole of last season. A near-constant figure in deep-lying midfield for the Seagulls, no player at the club has made more interceptions than him (61) since the start of last season in the Premier League, while only Mats Wieffer (102) has made more tackles than the Cameroon international (97).
Arsenal, Aston Villa, Bournemouth, Chelsea, Leeds United and Newcastle United: No Players
Six clubs have been fortunate to not lose any players to AFCON 2025, with the squads of Arsenal, Aston Villa, Bournemouth, Chelsea, Leeds United and Newcastle United set to remain fully stocked throughout the festive period and January barring injuries and suspensions.
Bournemouth are arguably the most fortunate Premier League club, with Ghana’s failure to qualify for the Africa Cup of Nations meaning the Cherries’ most influential player, Antoine Semenyo, remains with the side through December and January.
Semenyo has been involved in 10 of Bournemouth’s goals this season in league competition (seven goals, three assists). Amine Adli wasn’t called up by Morocco, and nor was Hamed Traoré for reigning champions Côte d’Ivoire, although the latter has played just 16 minutes of Premier League action for the club in 2025-26.
Yoane Wissa has been one of the most influential players for DR Congo in recent years, but despite finally making his Newcastle United debut earlier this month, his recovery from injury came too late to make their AFCON squad – a Christmas bonus for Eddie Howe.
Like Bournemouth, Tottenham will also be pleased Ghana did not qualify as it means they get to keep their top assist provider Mohammed Kudus. The former West Ham man has five assists in the Premier League this season, more than double any other Spurs player, while only Bruno Fernandes (7) and Rayan Cherki (6) have more in the whole division.
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