The 2021 Africa Cup of Nations has been officially postponed.
After a meeting on Tuesday afternoon, the Confederation of African Football confirmed that the tournament will be moved to January 2022.
It hands a boost to clubs who were anticipating to lose players in the middle of next season for the tournament.
The competition had originally been scheduled to be played in June and July 2021 in Cameroon, with CAF having moved their continental tournament to the summer in order to avoid players having to leave clubs mid-season to take part.
Yet, in January this year, it was rescheduled for January and February 2021 due to unfavourable climate conditions in Cameroon in June and July.
With UEFA having postponed Euro 2020 to next year and the Copa America also now set to be hosted in 2021, CAF have opted to delay their tournament by 12 months.
The coronavirus has meant that a calendar for next season is still to be finalised, so the Africa Cup of Nations has been postponed in order to avoid further disruption.
However, clubs will still face losing players for part of the 2021/22 season, but they now have more time to plan around this prospect.
With club spending set to be hit hard by the coronavirus, any club looking to replace players for the Africa Cup of Nations would have found themselves stretched further in the transfer market.
For Arsenal, it means the likes of Nicolas Pepe and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang - if still at the club - will be available for all of next season
Chelsea will be able to have Hakim Ziyech available for the whole season following his transfer from Ajax.
Serge Aurier will be available for all of Tottenham Hotspur's campaign.
