How Will The African Nations Cup Affect Us?

After reading about Dikgacoi's intent to leave the club on loan and also with the talk about the African Nations Cup intensifying, my thoughts turned to how the competition would affect the team.

As we know, we only have two players going to the competition, John Pantsil and Dickson Etuhu. Pantsil playing for Ghana and Etuhu for Nigeria.

Even though John Pantsil has become an integral part of our back four, I am actually not too worried about his leaving. Stephen Kelly has looked capable enough to fill in during his few appearances so far, Chris Baird has previous at right back and there is always Fredrik Stoor, anyone remember him?

Dickson Etuhu going away for a month though is my main worry and not for a standard reason. In my opinion, Etuhu and Murphy is by far our strongest midfield partnership but Baird has done brilliantly of late and Greening has at least seemed decent enough whilst filling in. My worry for Etuhu is that he won't play in the competition. Nigeria have a strong side, Etuhu has barely any caps and has been injured for a while which means his selection to start games is less likely and we need Dickson to come back to London fighting fit and ready to play.

I don't think we will be too affected and we should get through the month in similar fashion to how the last 18 months have gone and hopefully both Pantsil and Etuhu don't get injured!

Click here to join in the debate on the club forum.