Southampton: Saints could be without important duo next January

Southampton could be without key men Moussa Djenepo and Sofiane Boufal at the beginning of next year if Mali and Morocco qualify for the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations.

This is because of an announcement yesterday that next year’s tournament will be held in January and February rather than during the summer.

The 2021 competition will be held in Cameroon but there has been concern that matches will be played in the middle of the Premier League season whereas the 2019 tournament took place in June and July.

Djenepo’s Mali and Boufal’s Morocco are in good positions in qualifying at the moment too.

After two games so far, they sit second and first in their respective groups with the qualification process set to be completed at the beginning of the 2020/21 campaign.

Saints are not the only team who could be affected by this though with a host of Premier League players potentially playing in Cameroon.

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Liverpool could be hugely hampered with Sadio Mane, Mohamed Salah and Naby Keita all hoping to be there with Senegal, Egypt and Guinea respectively.

Other big names like Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Wilfried Zaha and Riyad Mahrez could also be away at the beginning of 2021.

However, it is unfair to criticise the change back to the winter.

African countries that qualify for World Cups could be playing in a major tournament two summers running if the Africa Cup of Nations stays as a June/July competition.

Both are vitally important for the players to participate in but scheduling surely becomes impossible at points given the number of qualifying games played in a short space of time.

Quite frankly, not everything can be arranged with English football in mind and clubs will have to take into account that signings African players will mean participation in their own continent’s festival of football at some point.

If Djenepo and Boufal do end up in Cameroon for part of the season next year, it will be important that other players step up and provide the same impact in games or off the bench that they have.