Liverpool may have to cope without Mo Salah for four months next year.
This is due to Afcon and the Tokyo Olympics both being staged in 2021.
Salah could feature for Egypt as one of a quota of players aged over 23 for the Tokyo Games after the event was moved to next July due to the coronavirus crisis.
Next year’s Afcon in Cameroon, providing the threat of Covid-19 has been extinguished, will be played in January and February.
Salah has been vital to the Merseyside club’s recent success.
The Egyptian was named PFA Player of the Year for the 2017-18 season after scoring a record 32 goals in a Premier League season in his maiden term.
Last season, he was joint-top goalscorer, alongside teammate Sadio Mane and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, with 22 goals.
Salah was on the score sheet for Liverpool against Bournemouth on March 7 before the season was suspended due to the spread of Covid-19, taking his league tally to 70.
The "Egyptian King" has also snuck into third place on the top-scorers list this season with his total of 16. Leicester's Jamie Vardy leads the way on 19 goals.
If Salah manages to top the goalscoring charts, it will be the third season in a row he has achieved this feat.
Should he go on to win it for a third season in a row, Salah would become the third player in Prem history to do so after Shearer (1994-1997) and Thierry Henry (2003-2006).