The Africa Cup of Nations runs from December 21st until January 18th in Morocco. Originally, clubs were supposed to release the players two weeks before the AFCON starts on December 21st but that date has now been moved.
Manchester United will keep Amad Diallo, Bryan Mbeumo and Noussair Mazraoui, Liverpool keep Mohamed Salah and Manchester City can keep Omar Marmoush for an extra week ahead of the tournament which will greatly affect the league.
The Athletic report that this moves comes as “discussions between key stakeholders, including CAF, African football’s governing body, and European Football Clubs (ECF, formerly the European Club Association) have led to a relaxation of the rules in recent years.”
This is a huge boost for many clubs but especially Sunderland who affected by AFCON departures, likely losing seven first team players to the competition.
Six rounds of Premier League fixtures are due to take place between the tournament dates, as well as the FA Cup third round and Carabao Cup semi-final first legs meaning top sides will have to adapt to losing many of their best players for just under a month.
AFCON gets underway on December 21st when the host nation take on Comoros, a date in the calendar for many sides as they start to rotate their squad.