As the African continent prepares to host its biggest football festival, European clubs where many of the continent’s top stars ply their trade usually bear the brunt of the impact.

Despite efforts by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) to move the tournament to the end of the European season, the adjustment has worked only once — during the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations in Egypt.

That edition also marked the first time the competition was expanded from 16 to 24 teams.

As the 35th edition of the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) approaches, Premier League club Fulham have emerged as one of the teams set to lose key African players to the tournament.

However, reports indicate that Sunderland will be the most affected club overall, with as many as eight African players expected to feature at the AFCON finals.

For Fulham, the club will be without Nigerian trio Alex Iwobi, Calvin Bassey, and Samuel Chukwueze, all of whom received call-ups from Super Eagles head coach Eric Chelle.

Fulham manager Marco Silva acknowledged the importance of the three players to his squad but admitted the club has accepted their absence for a significant number of matches.

“It is always like this. As a team, we are strong and we have players available. We knew this was going to happen,” Silva told the club’s official website.

“We know we are going to lose them. We don’t know for how long, but at least for the next five or six games.”

“When you don’t have all the players available, sometimes it creates more difficulty for us to manage and rotate the squad, to have solutions from the bench and impact from the bench.

“We are talking about three important players. I will not hide their importance, but you cannot change it. It was in the schedule and we knew it. Now is the time for others to step in, show their quality, and prove that we can trust them.”

WDN