South American qualifiers once again challenge Premiership players

Up to 16 South American Premier League players are in danger of not arriving in time to play for their clubs after playing World Cup qualifiers in Qatar with their national teams.

Some of them will have less than 40 hours from the end of their international fixtures until the Premier League games kick off on Saturday, putting their participation in the games in doubt.

Liverpool's Fabinho and Alisson will have just 35 hours from the end of the Brazil-Uruguay clash to prepare for and play against Watford on Saturday. That match is scheduled for 12:30 local time.

Ederson and Gabriel Jesus, who play at 3pm UK time (14:00 GMT) on Saturday, will have just 37.5 hours between the Uruguay game and the match they play for Manchester City against Burnley.

In similar situations are Manchester United's Edinson Cavani and Fred, Aston Villa's Emiliano Martinez and Douglas Luiz, Leeds United's Raphinha and Chelsea's Thiago Silva. They all play on Saturday.

Those playing on Sunday will have a little more rest, although none of them will reach 70 hours. Tottenham will be the team most affected, with Cristian Romero, Giovani Lo Celso, Emerson Royal and Davinson Sanchez all having between 64 and 67 hours between the end of their international commitments and the start of their game against Newcastle United.

Paraguay's Miguel Almiron, who is involved in the Paraguay-Bolivia game, is a doubt for the Magpies, while Everton have a similar situation with Yerry Mina, who will have a 64-hour gap between Colombia-Ecuador and Everton-West Ham United.

This situation was brought about by CONMEBOL's need to compress the football calendar into less time, so the last two international windows have been made up of three matches instead of the usual two.

On the positive side is the relaxation of restrictions by the British government on the entry of people from South America. With the vast majority of countries having been removed from the red list and following the Government's exemption for footballers, they will have to quarantine for ten days in a hotel of their choice, being able to leave once a day to play or train.