Which SPFL players are heading for Afcon 2025?

Seven Scottish clubs will be missing key players during the busy festive period after Africa Cup of Nations squads were submitted on Thursday.

Overall, 10 players based in Scotland are heading for the tournament in Morocco and will be unavailable to their clubs, at the very latest, from Monday.

When they will return depends on how far their national team progress in the competition, which starts with the group stage on 21 December and finishes with the final on 18 January.

Each of the sides currently sitting in the top five of the Scottish Premiership will lose at least one player, with the other two coming from Championship promotion hopefuls St Johnstone and Dunfermline Athletic.

That is a significant increase from the three players who headed to Afcon 2023 from the Scottish Professional Football League.

With three players heading for Afcon, Hibs are worst hit by absences.

Rocky Bushiri: Will be looking to add to his four caps with DR Congo and the 26-year-old will probably be most sorely missed given he has become a key part of David Gray's central defence.

Miguel Chaiwa: Just as he has won himself a couple of consecutive starting places in Hibs' midfield after his summer move from Young Boys, the 21-year-old will now will be looking to add to his 11 caps for Zambia.

Jordan Obita: Has faced stiff competition from the fit-again Nicky Cadden for a starting place at left-back in recent weeks and now the Oxford-born 32-year-old will be battling to add to his six caps for Uganda.

Uganda have yet to publicly announced which two players from their provisional 30-man squad have missed out, but Hibs are assuming he is heading to Morocco.

However, Hibs head coach David Gray, as of Friday afternoon, still did not know if any of the three would be permitted by their national associations to face Rangers on Monday.

The trio will at the very least miss games against Dundee United (A), Heart of Midlothian (H) and Aberdeen (H) - and possibly Kilmarnock (A).

Celtic would have possibly also had three players in Morocco if it had not been for 59-cap Kelechi Iheanacho's recent hamstring injury.

The 29-year-old former Manchester City, Leicester City and Middlesbrough striker's recent return to action came too late for him to force his way into a Nigeria squad that does include former Rangers forward Cyriel Dessers, now of Panathinaikos.

However, new manager Wilfried Nancy will still be without two wide men.

Sebastian Tounekti: Has become a regular starter since his summer purchase from Hammarby. The 23-year-old has played three times for Tunisia since switching allegiance from his Norway birthplace in 2021.

Michel-Ange Balikwisha: Another who has switched allegiances, the Belgium-born 24-year-old made his DR Congo debut last month in a World Cup qualifying win over Nigeria, the winger coming off the bench to score in the penalty shoot-out.

However, his impact with Celtic since his summer transfer from Royal Antwerp has been limited to two starts out of 11 appearances.

The duo will be missing against Dundee United (A), Aberdeen (H), Livingston (A) and Motherwell (A) - and likely Rangers (H).

Rangers could also have had as many as three players heading to Morocco.

However, having had an indifferent start to the season with the Ibrox side, midfielder Mohamed Diomande failed to make the Ivory Coast squad looking to retain the trophy and will have to wait to add to his eight caps.

Meanwhile, Tunisia had been trying to persuade Youssef Chermiti to represent his father's nation, but the off-form striker has not yet switched allegiances from Portugal.

That leaves just one Rangers player heading to Afcon.

Nasser Djiga: The 23-year-old centre-half, who has eight caps for Burkina Faso, has struggled since arriving on loan from Wolverhampton Wanderers.

However, with John Souttar and Derek Cornelius both injured, he has become first choice along with Emmanuel Fernandez in recent weeks and his absence leaves head coach Danny Rohl short of other options but hopeful Djiga will be allowed to face Hibs on Monday.

Djiga will at least miss Hearts (A), Motherwell (H) and St Mirren (H) - and likely Celtic (A).

Premiership leaders Heart of Midlothian will be missing just one player, but he is one who has been starting to have more of an impact in recent weeks.

Pierre Landry Kabore: The 24-year-old, signed from Estonian club Narva Trans in August, has found his feet at Tynecastle since scoring a hat-trick in Burkina Faso's 3-1 World Cup qualifying win over Ethiopia in October to take his total to six in six appearances for his country.

He followed that with a double in Hearts' win over Dundee and, although not yet an automatic starter, will be a much-missed option for head coach Derek McInnes.

Kabore will definitely miss Rangers (H) and Hibernian (A) - and likely Livingston (H).

In terms of impact, Motherwell's loss is probably greatest of all since they are losing the joint top scorer in the Premiership so far this season.

Tawanda Maswanhise: The 23-year-old - who signed in August 2024 after being released by Leicester City - has not looked back since scoring twice in his first appearance of the season, against Clyde in the Premier Sports Cup.

Only Hearts and Scotland striker Lawrence Shankland can match his eight top-flight goals this season and his influence, whether playing wide or through the middle, will be sorely missed while he adds to 14 caps for Zimbabwe in Morocco.

Well will definitely be without Maswanhise for Dundee (H), Rangers (A) and Celtic (H) - and likely St Mirren (H).

St Johnstone lead the Championship by three points at the time of writing, but they could do without losing one of their most experienced players.

Uche Ikpeazu: The Harrow-born 30-year-old striker has nevertheless struggled for game time since returning to Scotland. A cult hero in his two seasons with Hearts, he headed off to England in 2020 and returned via Port Vale in the summer but only three of his 23 appearances have been starts, scoring four goals.

Now he will be hoping to add to his three Uganda caps, assuming he is not one of the two to be dropped from the provisional squad.

Will miss Hearts B (A - Challenge Cup), Greenock Morton (H), Ross County (A) - and likely Arbroath (H).

Dunfermline have had the rare distinction for Scotland's second tier of having games called off this season because of their number of international call-ups.

Those have mainly been at under-21 level, but they also have one player making a name for himself at senior level.

Alfons Amade: The 26-year-old has been in and out of Neil Lennon's starting line-up since arriving at East End Park from Septemvri Sofia this summer.

However, the Germany-born midfielder has made 13 appearances for Mozambique since switching allegiances last year, including starts in a recent World Cup qualifying win over Somalia and a narrow defeat by this year's Afcon hosts, Morocco.

Amade will definitely miss Queen of the South (A - Challenge Cup), Ayr United (H) and Raith Rovers (A) - and likely Ross County (H).

With the top two and the four best runners-up from each group advancing to the round of 16, which is being held between 3-5 January, what are the chances of the SPFL's contingent making an extended stay in Morocco?

Group A

Chaiwa's Zambia (ranked 90th in the world) are in the same group as Scotland's World Cup opponents, Morocco, currently the highest-ranked African side at 11, but will hope to at least progress as a best runners-up with Mali (52) and Comoros (108) being their other opponents.

Group B

Going by world rankings, Maswanhise should be one of the first to head home considering Zimbabwe (129) face an uphill task to avoid finishing bottom of a section including Mo Salah's Egypt (34), South Africa (61) and Angola (89).

Nearly forgot to mention his three team-mates from Scottland - the Harare-based Zimbabwe Premier Soccer League club!

Group C

Nigeria (38) and Tounekti's Tunisia (40) should be vying for top spot in their section, while a Uganda squad (85) containing Obita and Ikpeazu are left fighting it out for third with Tanzania (112).

Group D

Bushiri and Balikwisha's DR Congo (56) will be second favourites for their group containing Senegal (19), Benin (92) and Botswana (138).

Group E

Djiga and Kabore's Burkina Faso (62) are also second favourites for their section behind Algeria (35) and ahead of Equatorial Guinea (97) and Sudan (118).

Group F

Amade is another who could face an early return with his Mozambique (102) the lowest ranked in their group behind holders Ivory Coast (42), Cameroon (57) and Gabon (78).

When each returns to the SPFL depends on how far their national team progress. The group stage ends between 29-31 December, the last-16 is 3-5 January, the quarter-finals 9/10 January, the semi-finals 14 January, third-place play-off 17 January, and the final on 18 January.