A Leicester City quartet are still due to represent their countries at next year’s Africa Cup of Nations amid claims of a postponement to the competition.
A Leicester City quartet are still due to represent their countries at next year’s Africa Cup of Nations amid claims of a postponement to the competition.
Wilfred Ndidi, Kelechi Iheanacho (both Nigeria), Daniel Amartey (Ghana) and Papy Mendy (Senegal) are all likely to be called up for the tournament, which begins in January, and will miss a handful of City matches as a result.
On Tuesday, there was talk that the competition would be cancelled because of infrastructure issues in host country Cameroon, in what would have been a boost to City for their games in the new year.
That is not the case, albeit African football’s governing body, CAF, said in a statement that follow-ups need to be made with the local organising committee over “areas that still need some urgent attention”.
CAF’s executive committee also “raised sanitary matters” over Covid-19 that need to be discussed with the Cameroonian government.
As things stand, City could be missing their players for as many as eight matches. Fifa rules state that clubs must release players for international tournaments on the Monday of the week preceding the week in which the tournament begins. With the first game on Sunday, January 9, that would see clubs releasing players on Monday, December 27.
Although it is not confirmed that City will let their players go on that date, if they do, they will miss a home game against title challengers Liverpool on December 28, then the New Year’s Day game with Norwich.
