Ivory Coast head coach Patrice Baumelle has named a 30-man squad for their first two rounds of the 2022 World Cup qualifiers next month without Arsenal Nicolas Pépé and Crystal Palace star Wilfred Zaha.
The Elephants will take on Mozambique away on September 3, 2021, and five days later, play Cameroon three days later at home.
Baumelle will have to do without Premier League stars Wilfred Zaha and Nicolas Pépé due to their English clubs’ decision not to allow players to travel to UK Government COVID-19 red-list countries.
However, Manchester United duo of Eric Bailey and Amad Diallo has made Baumelle’s squad.
Key men like captain Sergei Aurier of Tottenham Hotspur, AC Milan’s Franck Kessie, and Max Gradel are also in the squad.
The Frenchman says “Wilfried Zaha and Nicolas Pépé are absent because the clubs, Arsenal and Crystal Palace have refused to release the players for any of the 2 meetings.”
Meanwhile, the Ivorians will go up against Algeria, Sierra Leone and Equatorial Guinea in Group E for two automatic places to the round of 16 in next years African Cup of Nations in Cameroon.
See the full squad below:
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