The national managers of the teams who qualified for the African Cup of Nations 2023 and the Asian Cup 2023 have already submitted their final squads for the two continental tournaments. Both competitions begin later in January, but the selected footballers will not be able to perform on club level until fulfiling the commitments toward their countries.
After the announcement which players will have the honour to represent their nations, it became clear that three Premier League teams will not lose any footballers for international matches. They are Manchester City, Newcastle, and Burnley. Pep Guardiola’s team is the only of the title contenders not to stripped of a single player, while league-leaders Liverpool will have to do without their talisman Mohamed Salah and Wataru Endo, and Tottenham without Son Heung-min and two others. Arsenal will have to deal without the likes of Takehiro Tomiyasu and Mohamed Elneny and Aston Villa without Bertrand Traore.
At the other end is Nottingham Forest with 6 players called up for international duty, while Wolverhampton and Brentford follow with 4 each.