{"id":634217,"date":"2025-12-15T15:55:14","date_gmt":"2025-12-15T15:55:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/634217\/"},"modified":"2025-12-15T15:55:14","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T15:55:14","slug":"leeds-uniteds-next-four-opponents-to-be-rocked-by-afcon-exits-with-one-team-losing-six-players","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/634217\/","title":{"rendered":"Leeds United\u2019s next four opponents to be rocked by AFCON exits with one team losing six players"},"content":{"rendered":"

Each of them will lose significant players, which could play into Leeds United’s hands<\/p>\n

Isaac Johnson<\/strong> Leeds United reporter<\/p>\n

15:06, 15 Dec 2025<\/p>\n

\"FormerFormer Leeds United target Noah Sadiki of Sunderland is one who will be away at AFCON(Image: Carl Recine\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Leeds United will not lose any player to the imminent African Cup of Nations tournament this winter, while other rival Premier League<\/a> clubs will see a number jet off out of their squad.<\/p>\n

In fact, all of United\u2019s next four opponents will lose players with some key personnel set to be absent. This could play into Leeds<\/a>\u2019 favour, albeit some teams will feel they have enough numbers and quality to cope.<\/p>\n

This edition of AFCON begins on December 21, with those who make it all the way to the final playing up until January 18. The deadline for clubs to release their players is this week, meaning contingency preparations will already be underway for those set to lose players.<\/p>\n

Leeds face Crystal Palace this Saturday<\/a> before taking on Sunderland on Sunday, December 28. Three days later is the trip to Liverpool while a home clash with Manchester United follows the proceeding Sunday. Here are the players set to be absent for each opposing club.<\/p>\n

Crystal Palace – one<\/p>\n

Palace are set to lose just one player but it is a big name. Senegal\u2019s Ismaila Sarr has been in great form for the Eagles with eight goals in 20 games across all competitions.<\/p>\n

Only Jean-Philippe Mateta has scored more for Oliver Glasner\u2019s side (nine). Having started all but one Premier League game he\u2019s been available for, Sarr is a significant loss for Palace.<\/p>\n

Sunderland – six<\/p>\n

Sunderland are by some distance the team set to be most impacted. Former Leeds target Noah Sadiki will join teammate Arthur Masuaku is representing DR Congo while mainstay full-back Reinildo has been called up by Mozambique.<\/p>\n

Striker Bertrand Traore is set to feature for Burkina Faso while Morocco winger Chemsdine Talbi will also be absent. Habib Diarra, another Leeds summer target, has been called up by Senegal but is currently working his way back from a long-term injury.<\/p>\n

However, the losses could have been greater for the Black Cats. Simon Andingra of Ivory Coast and Blondy Nna Noukeu of Cameroon have missed out on selection for their respective countries.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless those who are absent account for more than 50 Premier League appearances between them this season.<\/p>\n

Liverpool – one<\/p>\n

The absence of Mohamed Salah might have been more disruptive to Liverpool – Leeds’ New Year\u2019s Day opponents – in previous years than this time around but the Egyptian winger will still be a key loss for Arne Slot.<\/p>\n

Though as for impact for Leeds, not only do Liverpool boast a squad that has immeasurable talent that can cover for Salah – they\u2019ve also played the Reds without him being on the pitch anyway.<\/p>\n

His benching led to his extraordinary outburst at Elland Road, after all. So this is a road Leeds have trodden before.<\/p>\n

Manchester United – three<\/p>\n

Byran Mbeumo will be a significant loss for Manchester United for their fixtures, including against Leeds on January 4, should Cameroon progress through to the knockouts as expected.<\/p>\n

Amad has also been one of a handful of positives for them too, and he joins up with the Ivory Coast. The other player that is set to be away is full-back Noussair Mazraoui of Morocco.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Each of them will lose significant players, which could play into Leeds United’s hands Isaac Johnson Leeds United…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":634218,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8814],"tags":[748,22356,393,4884,1860,24464,763,423,101,8900,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-634217","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-leeds","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-crystal-palace-fc","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-leeds","13":"tag-leeds-united-fc","14":"tag-liverpool-fc","15":"tag-manchester-united-fc","16":"tag-premier-league","17":"tag-sunderland-afc","18":"tag-uk","19":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115724401173018783","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634217","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=634217"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/634217\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/634218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=634217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=634217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=634217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}