We round up the key Fantasy Premier League (FPL) talking points of the day in FPL Daily, a weekday series that serves non-Premier League matchdays and days when we don’t bring you a team news/press conference round-up.
The big FPL news of Wednesday was the announcement that Manchester United and Brighton and Hove Albion will both have a Double Gameweek 25, something you can read about here.
WHEN WILL SALAH RETURN?
Egypt were second-favourites to win their Africa Cup of Nations round-of-16 tie against Ivory Coast but the Pharaohs progressed to the quarter-finals after a penalty shoot-out victory on Wednesday evening.
The scorer of the decisive spot-kick was one Mohamed Salah (£12.7m), whose stay in Cameroon now extends to another four days at the very least.
Should Egypt defeat Morocco in their quarter-final tie on Sunday, that will ensure a stay in Africa for Salah until Sunday 6 February, as there is a third-place play-off taking place on the same day as the tournament final (assuming Liverpool don’t attempt to wrestle him away from that ultimately meaningless bronze-medal clash).
Liverpool are in Gameweek 24 action four days after AFCON ends so, while Salah could easily be back in the UK in time for the clash with Leicester City, it remains to be seen whether Jurgen Klopp would entertain the idea of including FPL’s leading points-scorer in his starting XI after he previously featured in seven international matches in the space of four weeks.
A post-tournament breather for Salah like the one Pep Guardiola gave Riyad Mahrez (£8.6m) is another scenario, although the Algerian doesn’t quite have the same talismanic status as Liverpool’s number 11 and Klopp doesn’t exactly have the same top-class understudies on the right flank as the City boss does.
AFCON LATEST
| Country | Premier League Players at AFCON | Next Fixture |
| Burkina Faso | Bertrand Traore (Aston Villa) | v Tunisia (quarter-finals, Jan 29) |
| Guinea | Naby Keita (Liverpool) | ELIMINATED IN THE LAST 16 |
| Senegal | Edouard Mendy (Chelsea), Cheikhou Kouyate (C Palace), Nampalys Mendy (Leicester), Sadio Mane (Liverpool), Ismaila Sarr (Watford) | v Equatorial Guinea (quarter-finals, Jan 30) |
| Morocco | Adam Masina (Watford), Imran Louza (Watford), Romain Saiss (Wolves) | v Egypt (quarter-finals, Jan 30) |
| Ghana | Thomas Partey (Arsenal), Jordan Ayew (C Palace), Daniel Amartey (Leicester) | ELIMINATED AT THE GROUP STAGE |
| Nigeria | Frank Onyeka (Brentford), Alex Iwobi (Everton), Wilfred Ndidi (Leicester), Kelechi Iheanacho (Leicester), William Troost-Ekong (Watford) | ELIMINATED IN THE LAST 16 |
| Egypt | Mohamed Elneny (Arsenal), Trezeguet (A Villa), Mohamed Salah (Liverpool) | v Morocco (quarter-finals, Jan 30) |
| Ivory Coast | Nicolas Pepe (Arsenal), Maxwel Cornet (Burnley), Wilfried Zaha (C Palace), Eric Bailly (Man Utd) | ELIMINATED IN THE LAST 16 |
| Algeria | Riyad Mahrez (Man City), Said Benrahma (West Ham) | ELIMINATED AT THE GROUP STAGE |
| Mali | Yves Bissouma (Brighton), Moussa Djenepo (Southampton) | ELIMINATED IN THE LAST 16 |
POSTPONEMENT RULE CHANGES
Postponements and Blank Gameweeks caused by player unavailability now look less likely to happen as a result of a rule change announced by the Premier League on Wednesday.
From now on, if a club applies to postpone a match on the grounds of insufficient players due to Covid-19, they must have a minimum of four positive cases.
The rules will be in place before the Double Gameweek 23 match between Burnley and Watford.
Previously, clubs could request a match to be postponed if they did not have 13 available senior players as well as a goalkeeper.
The statement added:
Club applications will continue to be assessed on a case-by-case basis. The Premier League Board examines a number of factors, including the ability of a club to field a team; the status, severity and potential impact of COVID-19; and the ability of the players to safely prepare for and play the match.
The detail within all applications is scrutinised by the League’s specialist staff before the Board makes its decision.
For a look at the day’s transfer rumours, visit our sister site, Fantasy Football Community.
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2 years, 2 months agoMixes things up a bit more. Good stuff.