Players competing in the Premier League who have been called up for the 2025 AFCON have begun to join the national team this week.
The players called up to the national team could be absent from the club for more than a month, in the context of the 2025 AFCON final scheduled to take place on January 18. That raises the question: which Premier League teams will be most affected and which teams will be least affected by this tournament?
Which club has the most players participating in AFCON?
A total of 32 players competing in the Premier League will participate in AFCON 2025, representing 14 of the 24 teams participating in the tournament.
According to statistics, Sunderland is the team most affected with 6 players leaving for AFCON. This is double that of any other Premier League club and also the highest among the teams in Europe's top five leagues.
Notably, Sunderland's absentee list includes two key players in the defence: holding midfielder Noah Sadiki and left-back reinildo. The duo have helped Sunderland keep a clean sheet in 5 matches since the beginning of the Premier League season. This included the Wear-Tyne derby last weekend, where both teams played the full 90 minutes.
Manchester United will lose 3 players including Bryan Mbeumo, Amad Diallo and Noussair Mazraoui. Similarly, Fulham will also be without Alex Iwobi, Calvin Bassey and Samuel Chukwuemeze, while Burnley will not have the services of Lyle Foster, Hannibal Mejbri and Axel Tuanzebe during the tournament.
Seven other Premier League clubs have lost two players, including Manchester City with Omar Marmoush and Rayan Ait-Nouri. In addition, the three teams are missing just one player, including Liverpool, where Mohamed Salah joined the team after leaving his mark against Brighton.
On the other hand, the six Premier League teams will not have any players participating in AFCON 2025. Arsenal, who are top of the table, are one of the teams that are not affected by the tournament.
Which clubs have lost their most important players?
Losing players is already a problem, but losing key players is a completely different story.
According to the total number of minutes played by the players participating in AFCON 2025, Sunderland continues to be the team most severely affected in the Premier League.
The six "Black Mo" players called up have played a total of 4,412 minutes in the Premier League this season. Noah Sadiki and reinildo accounted for nearly half of the total minutes, but Chemsdine Talbi and Bertrand Traore were also regulars in the starting lineup.
Fulham are second in the list of most affected teams, slightly better than Man United - the third-placed team - when both clubs have lost players who have played more than 3,000 minutes in the Premier League this season.
For Fulham, the biggest losses in terms of personnel are Alex Iwobi and Calvin Bassey, both of whom are playing for the Nigeria national team. Meanwhile, Man United will not have the services of Bryan Mbeumo (Cameroon) and Amad Diallo (Ivory Coast), two players who play an important role in the squad.
Everton and West Ham are next in the statistics table, with players such as Ndiaye, Idrissa Gueye, Malick Diouf and Aaron Wan-Bissaka all regular starters and having played more than 1,000 minutes in the Premier League this season.
