AFCON & Asian Cup could affect Scottish Premiership clubs in early 2024

Scottish Premiership clubs face being without players after the winter break while the Africa Cup of Nations and Asian Cup take place.

The Premiership pauses after fixtures on 2 January until 23 January. The fourth round of the Scottish Cup takes place over the weekend of 20 January.

Aberdeen, Celtic, Hearts, Hibernian, Rangers and St Mirren could all be affected by player absences.

The Dons could be without Luis ‘Duk’ Lopes as he has been a regular in the Cape Verde squad, who have qualified for AFCON.

Celtic trio Kyogo Furuhashi, Reo Hatate and Daizen Maeda have been in recent Japan squads, with their club-mate Oh Hyeon-gyu a regular in the South Korea set-up and Marco Tilio having been called up by Australia back in March.

Hibernian could be missing both Rocky Bushiri, who made his debut for DR Congo recently, and Ghana goalkeeper Jojo Wollacott along with Australia pair Martin Boyle and Lewis Miller.

Hearts trio Nathaniel Atkinson, Cammy Devlin and Kye Rowles and St Mirren duo Keanu Baccus and Ryan Strain are also likely to feature for the Socceroos.

Rangers potentially could be without Abdallah Sima, who was last month recalled by Senegal after a two-year absence, and Cyriel Dessers, though he has not been involved recently for Nigeria.