Man United and Liverpool stars in the running but who are the top 5 PL stars who should go to AFCON?

The 2017 African Cup of Nations will kick off in Gabon on Saturday 14th January with 16 countries competing in the competition. As things currently stand Ivory Coast and Senegal are the favourites for the title, with the final set to take place on Sunday 5th February.

The major shock at AFCON so far is that three-time winners Nigeria have failed to qualify for the finals, after losing their group to Egypt. With the squads set to be announced fairly soon, just what kind of an impact will it have on the Premier League?

Based on recent call ups, the teams who could be set to lose the most amount of players are: Leicester (5- Islam Slimani, Riyad Mahrez, Jeffrey Schlupp, Yohan Benalouane, Daniel Amartey), Everton (4 – Yannick Bolasie, Idrissa Gueye, Oumar Niasse, Arouna Kone), Sunderland (4 – Lamine Kone, Wahbi Khazri, Didier Ndong, Papy Djilobodji) and West Ham (4 – Andre Ayew, Sofiane Feghouli, Cheikou Kouyate, Diafra Sakho).

This is bad news for these top-flight teams, with their African players expected to miss up to a month of domestic action, which will include four rounds of league fixtures. Burnley, Chelsea, Manchester City, Middlesbrough, Swansea and Tottenham should all remain unaffected. Here are five Premier League players who should definitely be getting a call up to the African Cup of Nations…