How AFCON and the Asian Cup will affect FPL

Dozens upon dozens of players have now been red-flagged in Fantasy Premier League (FPL) as a result of their involvement at the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) or the Asian Cup.

Both tournaments start in mid-January and run for around a month, meaning the affected players will miss at least one Gameweek – and as many as four.

In an update to the article we last ran in November, we round up everything that FPL managers need to know.

WHEN ARE THE START AND FINISH DATES FOR AFCON + THE ASIAN CUP?

AFCON will take place between Saturday 13 January and Sunday 11 February 2024.

The Asian Cup starts on Friday 12 January and runs to Saturday 10 February 2024.

So, in FPL terms, Gameweeks 21 to 24 will be affected.

AFCON, ASIAN CUP + FPL CALENDAR

This season sees the return of the winter break, so any player whose country is eliminated at the group stage of AFCON or the Asian Cup will likely only miss one Premier League encounter (in Gameweek 21).

Anyone progressing to the final (or third-place play-off), of course, would be in line to miss four top-flight fixtures.

Barring some post-tournament leave granted by their club managers, even the finalists should be back for Gameweek 25. That gets underway on Saturday 17 February.

AFCON + THE ASIAN CUP: AFFECTED PLAYERS AND TEAMS IN FPL

Here is a club-by-club guide of which Premier League players are representing their nations.

Brighton and Hove Albion duo Kaoru Mitoma (£6.4m) and Simon Adingra (£5.0m) are among the players named, despite both wingers carrying injuries at present.

MISSING OUT

Thomas Partey (£4.8m), Bryan Mbeumo (£6.8m), Tariq Lamptey (£3.9m), Cheick Doucoure (£4.9m), Marvelous Nakamba (£4.4m) and Taiwo Awoniyi (£6.3m) all miss out on the Africa Cup of Nations due to injury.

Lyle Foster (£4.8m) wasn’t included in the South Africa squad, meanwhile, as he continues to receive support and treatment for his mental health.

Hamed Traore (£4.7m) is battling malaria, so also misses out on representing Cote d’Ivoire.

Carlos Baleba (£4.5m), Anass Zaroury (£4.7m), Jeffrey Schlupp (£4.9m), Abdoulaye Doucoure (£5.5m), Pelly Ruddock Mpanzu (£4.7m), Amad Diallo (£4.4m), Hannibal Mejbri (£4.3m), Ismaila Coulibaly (£4.4m), Benie Traore (£5.2m), Said Benrahma (£5.6m) and Maxwel Cornet (£5.2m) were either overlooked, never really in the picture or made themselves unavailable.

WHEN WILL SON + SALAH RETURN?

As you may have seen in Pras’s recent article, thanks to some fine work from @f_analytic and @DbAbsur (building on an idea from @robtFPL) we can see what the probability is of Son Heung-min (£9.9m) and Mohamed Salah (£13.2m) returning to domestic action in Gameweeks 21-24.

The bookies reckon there’s a 95% chance of Salah’s Egypt making it through the group stage, for example, so it’s very, very likely that the Liverpool winger will miss at least two Gameweeks.

Egypt are only the bookmakers’ fifth favourites to progress to the AFCON final but they’d just have to reach the semi-finals for Salah to miss Gameweek 24, due to there being a 3rd/4th-place play-off.

Son’s South Korea are implied to have a 99% chance of making it through their group and are behind only Mitoma’s Japan in the bookies’ Asian Cup outright odds.

BEST SALAH AND SON REPLACEMENTS

One of our regular contributors, The Wire co-host Pras, has recently cast his eye over some potential replacements for Son and Salah, from long-term purchases to short-term punts.

You can read his thoughts here.