South Africa national team captain Aaron Mokoena says that the January start date for the Africa Cup of Nations presents serious dilemmas for players, and has called on football's governing bodies to alter the tournament's format.
Mokoena told ITV Sport: "The timing of the Cup of Nations is absolutely wrong...it jeopardises our careers."
And the Portsmouth midfielder went on to explain the problems which the January start date poses for African players.
"January is the most crucial period for all the leagues in the world, especially the Premier League," he said.
"It gets to a point where as a player you ask yourself questions - 'Should I go or should I stay? If I go I'm losing my position in the club, I might have problems with the manager.'"
"'If I don't go to the Cup of Nations I'll have a bigger problem with my nation and I might not be able to go back to my country in the future.'"
Mokoena suggested that FIFA and CAF, African football's governing body, should reconsider staging the tournament during the European club season.
And the South Africa captain, who has earned 107 caps for his country, also branded his country's failure to qualify for this year's tournament in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea as "an embarrassment".
Watch the full interview above
The Africa Cup of Nations quarter-final between Ivory Coast and Equatorial Guinea is live on ITV4 on Saturday 4th February from 6.30pm
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