Tottenham Hotspur could be without Serge Aurier for over a month next season with the Africa Cup of Nations taking place in Cameroon during the winter.
The tournament to determine the champion of the African continent was last hosted in the summertime when Algeria were crowned champions in Egypt last year, but it will now revert back to its regular slot at the beginning of the calendar year in 2021.
While Ivory Coast currently sit outside the qualification spots in their group after suffering a shock defeat to Ethiopia last November - a game in which Aurier scored his side’s only goal - they are expected to recover and reach next year’s finals, with Niger and Madagascar the other two teams in their group.
The 2021 AFCON tournament is set to kick off on January 9 and should the Elephants go far in the competition - like they did in 2015 when they beat Ghana in the final - then Aurier could be away for at least a month.
Of course, with all of football currently on hold, there is no guarantee AFCON 2021 will go ahead as planned, with March’s qualification fixtures already being postponed to a later date.
Meanwhile, Spurs could potentially lose even more time to a mid-season tournament with the scheduled Tokyo Olympics being pushed back to next year.
With reports now claiming that the 2021 games could be held in spring rather than the summertime, any players who plan to chase a gold medal in Japan may have to miss a chunk of the season to do so.
For Tottenham, that will hopefully not prove too disruptive, though with Ivory Coast qualifying for the tournament, they could potentially call upon Aurier again as one of their allotted over-age players in what is a mostly U23 tournament.
Elsewhere, Argentina could offer a call up to the 22-year-old Juan Foyth. Though he is currently not in their squad, having already lined out for the senior national team previously, he could be brought in to strengthen their charges as Argentina attempt to win their first gold medal in the event since 2008.
Erik Lamela, Giovani Lo Celso and Paulo Gazzaniga could also be called up as over age players, while Hugo Lloris, Moussa Sissoko and Tanguy Ndombele for France and Lucas Moura for Brazil remain highly unlikely, though technically possible, call ups.
It’s also unlikely Son Heung-min would be called up by Korea, having already served time with the U23 squad as a senior player when he captained them to the 2018 Asian Games title.
