These are the Aston Villa, Arsenal and Liverpool players named in...

These are the Aston Villa, Arsenal and Liverpool players named in AFCON squads

Aston Villa’s January roster will be missing one player because of the Africa Cup of Nations competition in Côte

d’Ivoire.

January 3rd is the cutoff date for the 24 participating teams to announce their final 27-man tournament squads.

However, some of the countries have already announced their final choices despite this.

The competition runs from January 13 to February 11, with the Alassane Ouattara Stadium in Abidjan hosting the

championship game. The event was rescheduled from its initial summertime date because of worries about it falling

during the rainy season and the associated weather.

Moving forward considering only one Villa player is included in the official squad, Villa won’t be as impacted as other

teams. That player is Bertrand Traore. During the competition, the 28-year-old will be representing Burkina Faso.

Under Unai Emery, the winger has had difficulty getting into the starting lineup and has missed the last seven

Premier League games due to injury. His selection to the Burkina Faso team suggests that his ailment won’t stop him

from competing in the competition.

Considering the other teams in and surrounding Villa, Thomas Partey and Mohamed Elneny are two players that

Arsenal may be missing. Despite having only recently returned from injury, Partey has been named in Ghana’s

provisional 55-man squad, while Elneny is in Egypt’s provisional squad.

Mo Salah, who will be playing for Egypt, is anticipated to be absent from Liverpool. The current league leaders will

also be without Wataru Endo because he is a member of the Japan Asian Cup roster.