Premier League Players who will miss PL due to AFCON 2025

In this article, we look at the AFCON 2025 schedule & the Premier League Players who will miss PL games due to AFCON games

Link to all our FPL GW16 blogs including scout picks, players to target, buy, hold, sell analysis, differentials, captaincy metrics, best forwards, and more. Completely free to access as well!

What’s new in FPL because of AFCON?

This season, FPL is giving managers four extra free transfers to help FPL managers transfer out players leaving for AFCON. The total number of free transfers will be topped up to the maximum possible number of five in Gameweek 16(4 extra free transfers + the regular 1 free transfer each gameweek)

To fully benefit from this, managers need to use all their free transfers by the end of GW15, and with the AFCON free transfer top-up, managers can go into GW16 with 5 free transfers.

If you bank transfers going into GW16 and then say go into GW16 with 2 free transfers, you’ll only get 3 more free transfers, missing out on the other free transfers on offer. This is because you cannot have more than five free transfers in FPL.

When will your transfers get updated to five free transfers?

All FPL managers will have five free transfers once FPL is updated after the GW15 deadline on Saturday, 11th December(11:00 AM UK Time)

AFCON Schedule

Group Stages	21 December – 31 December
Round of 16	3 January- 6 January
Quarter Finals	9 January – 10 January
Semi Finals	14 January
3rd place & Finals	17 January & 18th January

AFCON Group Stage Draw:

How will AFCON affect the Premier League in terms of schedule?

Here is how the English football Calendar will look in correspondence to the African Cup of Nations(AFCON)

Date	Premier League	AFCON
13 December	Gameweek 16 deadline
20 December	Gameweek 17 deadline
21 December		AFCON Group Stage Starts
27 December	Gameweek 18 deadline
30 December	Gameweek 19 deadline
31 December		AFCON Group Stage concludes
3 January	Gameweek 20 deadline	AFCON Round of 16 begins
6 January		AFCON Round of 16 ends
7 January	Gameweek 21 deadline
9 January		AFCON Quarter Finals
10 January		AFCON Quarter Finals
14 January		AFCON Semi Finals
17 January	Gameweek 22 deadline	AFCON 3rd place match
18 January		AFCON Final
24 January	Gameweek 23 deadline

Key Takeaways:

• AFCON runs from Gameweek 17 to Gameweek 22
• Players going to AFCON will likely miss GW16 fixtures to join their national training camps & play friendlies ahead of AFCON
• All the Players involved in AFCON will surely miss Gameweek 17 to Gameweek 19
• The last set of group stage games are scheduled for Dec 29th, 30th, and 31st. The Gameweek 20 deadline is on January 2nd, so most players involved in AFCON will likely miss Gameweek 20 too.
• If their national team qualifies for the Round of 16, they will surely miss Gameweek 20 & most likely miss Gameweek 21 as well
• If their national team qualifies for the quarter-finals, they will surely miss Gameweek 21 as well
• If their national team qualifies for the Semifinals, they will surely miss Gameweek 22 as well
• Players from the 2025 AFCON-winning team might miss GW23 as well

When will the players involved in AFCON leave for the tournament?

FIFA confirms clubs must release players for the AFCON by Monday, 15 December, one week ahead of the start of AFCON. This means AFCON-bound players will leave after playing their GW16 fixtures.

Man United play Bournemouth on the night of 15th December, which is the day FIFA has mandated for player releases for AFCON. Remains to be seen what happens in this scenario.

It is expected that the players from United & Bournemouth involved in AFCON(Adli, Mbeumo, Diallo, Mazraoui) would leave after this game.

Arne Slot, earlier this month, confirmed that Mo Salah will depart for AFCON duty on December 15.

Which Premier League teams will be least affected due to AFCON?

Arsenal, Leeds United, and Chelsea have zero players who’ll be going to AFCON. Ghana not qualifying for the first time since 2004 means popular FPL options, Semenyo & Kudus, will not be missing out on Premier League action.

Which Premier League teams will be most affected due to AFCON?

Sunderland have seven players involved in AFCON, including the likes of Talbi, Reinildo & Sadiki, who are all important players for the black cats.

Wolves have five players who’ll be off to AFCON, including the likes of Emmanuel Agbadou and new striker Tolu.

Man United will be without the trio of Mbeumo, Diallo, and Mazraoui. Mbeumo is the most owned player in FPL currently with 35.5% ownership.

Liverpool will miss Mo Salah, he’s the 2nd most owned player in FPL with 20% ownership at the time of writing. He’s, however, been benched for back-to-back games(GW13 vs West Ham & GW14 vs Sunderland).

Everton will miss Ndiaye & Gueye, the former is owned by 10.6% of FPL managers.

Only three AFCON-bound players are currently owned by more than 10% of FPL managers.

Premier League Players who will miss PL due to AFCON 2025(team-wise)

Arsenal

Number of players expected to be involved in AFCON: 0

Aston Villa

Number of players expected to be involved in AFCON: 1

• Evann Guessand (Ivory Coast)

Bournemouth

Number of players expected to be involved in AFCON: 1

• Amine Adli (Morocco)

Brentford

Number of players expected to be involved in AFCON: 2

• Dango Ouattara (Burkina Faso)
• Frank Onyeka (Nigeria)

Brighton

Number of players expected to be involved in AFCON: 1

• Carlos Baleba (Cameroon)

Burnley

Number of players expected to be involved in AFCON: 3

• Lyle Foster (South Africa)
• Axel Tunazabe(DR Congo)
• Hannibal Mejbri(Tunisia)

Chelsea

Number of players expected to be involved in AFCON: 0

Crystal Palace

Number of players expected to be involved in AFCON: 3

• Christantus Uche (Nigeria)
• Chadi Riad (Morocco)
• Cheick Doucoure (Mali)

Sarr was subbed off due to injury against Man United on the 1st of December (GW13). Oliver Glasner later confirmed that Sarr has an ankle ligament injury and could miss AFCON with Senegal.

Everton

Number of players expected to be involved in AFCON: 2

• Iliman Ndiaye (Senegal)
• Idrissa Gueye (Senegal)

Fulham

Number of players expected to be involved in AFCON: 3

• Alex Iwobi (Nigeria)
• Calvin Bassey (Nigeria)
• Samuel Chukwueze (Nigeria)

Leeds United

Number of players expected to be involved in AFCON: 0

Liverpool

Number of players expected to be involved in AFCON: 1

• Mo Salah(Egypt)

Manchester United

Number of players expected to be involved in AFCON: 3

• Bryan Mbeumo (Cameroon)
• Noussair Mazraoui (Morocco)
• Amad Diallo (Ivory Coast)

Manchester City

Number of players expected to be involved in AFCON: 2

• Rayan Ait-Nouri (Algeria)
• Omar Marmoush (Egypt)

Newcastle United

Number of players expected to be involved in AFCON: 0

• Yoanne Wissa (DR Congo) has not been named in Congo’s squad for AFCON.

Nottingham Forest

Number of players expected to be involved in AFCON: 3

• Ola Aina (Nigeria) – Currently injured
• Willy Boly (Ivory Coast) – Has not played a single minute in the PL so far
• Ibrahim Sangare (Ivory Coast)

Spurs

Number of players expected to be involved in AFCON: 2

• Pape Matar Sarr (Senegal)
• Yves Bissouma (Mali)

Sunderland

Number of players expected to be involved in AFCON: 7

• Noah Sadiki (DR Congo)
• Simon Adingra (Ivory Coast)
• Chemsdine Talbi (Morocco)
• Reinildo Mandava (Mozambique)
• Habib Diarra (Senegal)
• Arthur Masuaku (DR Congo)
• Bertrand Traore (Burkina Faso)

West Ham

Number of players expected to be involved in AFCON: 2

•  El Hadji Malick Diouf (Senegal)
• Aaron Wan-Bissaka (DR Congo)

Wolverhampton Wanderers

Number of players expected to be involved in AFCON: 5

• Emmanuel Agbadou (Ivory Coast)
• Jackson Tchatchoua (Cameroon)
• Tawanda Chirewa (Zimbabwe)
• Marshall Munetsi (Zimbabwe)
• Tolu Arokodare (Nigeria)

@FPL_Barbossa’s chart on player unavailability due to AFCON 2025

Further Reads from ALLABOUTFPL Ahead of FPL GW16

Premier League Players who will miss PL due to AFCON 2025
FPL GW16 Ultimate Guide: Tips, Differentials, Captaincy & More

Link to all our FPL GW16 blogs,including buy, hold, sell analysis, differentials, captaincy metrics, transfer targets, and more. Completely free to access as well!

Thanks for reading the “Players who will miss PL due to 2025 AFCON” blog. Keep checking allaboutfpl.com for regular blogs. Also, follow our 150,000+ community on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter to stay updated on regular Posts and FPL updates.

What’s next from ALLABOUTFPL ahead of FPL Gameweek 16 of the 2025/26 FPL Season?

We’ll be covering differential picks, transfer targets, Buy, Hold, Sell analysis, Scout picks, Gameweek preview, Captaincy metrics, FPL GW16 tips, and more. Keep checking allaboutfpl.com for all our blogs. We’ll also be posting regularly about the same on our social media accounts so follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook and keep our notification ON.