It is common for elite players to represent their respective countries in international competitions. However, there is a potential cost to the club team derived from that situation (risk of injury, fatigue, psychological momentum, etc.). This paper evaluates the impact of players` absence on European football teams` performance by focusing on the Africa Cup of Nations as the case study. The results indicate that the sending of players to the African tournament has a relatively small negative impact on teams` performance. But this cannot be generalized to all the leagues and loses significance when corrected by players` abilities.
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