Contrary to pretty much every World Cup tournament in recent history, which have taken place during the months of June and July, this year's Finals will kick off right in the middle of the Premier League season in a bid to avoid the sweltering summer temperatures in host-nation Qatar. In the past, international tournaments (like the Euros and AFCON) have put some managers off of drafting its participants as early as they might have if the competitions didn't take place, for fear that missing matches or fatigue could negatively impact their fantasy performances. But is there any validity to that fear, and should it be taken into account for the World Cup this season? Let’s look at the specifics of the upcoming tournament and what you should consider as you prepare for your draft. Click here for details on how you can access our 22/23 Draft Kit.

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World Cup 2022 Tournament Schedule & Dates
The 2022 World Cup is set to take place from November 21 - December 18. Unlike last season’s Africa Cup of Nations, where the Premier League forged ahead while the tournament took place, the EPL will go on hiatus for the full duration of the Finals in Qatar while the 32 qualifying nations compete for the most coveted trophy in the sport.
This break will fall between game weeks 16 (ending November 13) and 17 (beginning December 26) in the Premier League schedule, meaning players who are not participating in the World Cup will have more than a month to rest and train without the demands of domestic, European, and international football.
For players who will be joining up with their national teams in the Middle East in November, the length of their Winter break will depend on how far they progress through the tournament. Here’s a rundown of the World Cup tournament stages:
Group Stage: November 21 - December 2
Round of 16: December 3-6
Quarterfinals: December 9-10
Semi-Finals: December 13-14
Third-Place Match: December 17
Final: December 18
For the nations that drop out in the Group Stage, Round of 16 and even the Quarterfinals, it’s likely that their players will return to their respective clubs with enough time to recuperate and be ready to play on Boxing Day. For the four nations who make it to the Semi-Finals, however, their players will not only remain in Qatar for an additional week, but they’ll also have to play an additional two matches. Combined with a late return to England, these players may miss a game or two over the festive period to ensure they can continue performing at an optimal level without risking injuries caused by overload.
Potential World Cup Impacts on Fantasy EPL Drafts
So, what does all this mean for your draft? In all honesty, probably not a huge amount. Looking back to last season, Mo Salah very nearly finished as the number one overall fantasy player, despite missing multiple fixtures (and suffering a dip in form) as a result of Egypt making it to the finals of the Africa Cup of Nations. Lest you think Salah's dip in form is indicative of a pattern or a red flag for World Cup participants, there were quite a few African footballers whose fantasy points remained consistent or improved upon their return to the Premier League (including Sadio Mane, Thomas Partey and Alex Iwobi).
Essentially, there's not enough data to suggest international tournaments have much bearing on which round a player should be taken in the draft. If there’s a player you definitely want to roster for the upcoming season, don’t let their participation in the World Cup get in the way of selecting them. If you’re putting together tiered rankings before draft day or weighing the choice between a few players ahead of your next pick during the draft, though, there are some factors worth considering, primarily the difference in playing time versus recovery time.
For example, let's say you have first pick in your league. If you are 100% committed to having Kevin De Bruyne on your roster, pick him and don't give it a second thought. If you're torn between KDB and Salah, though, you may want to factor in the fact that the Liverpool man will have a mid-season break while City's midfield maestro tries to earn Belgium a berth in the latter stages of the competition in Qatar. You can apply this same logic as you work through the rest of your personal rankings.
While it’s impossible to know the outcome of the World Cup ahead of time, we can look to the live odds to make some informed predictions for which teams are most likely to advance to the latter stages of the tournament and, therefore, which Premier League footballers are most likely to be carrying extra minutes in their legs heading into the second half of the season.
Our very own DraftLad has done the dirty work of compiling a comprehensive spreadsheet of all the Premier League players who could be headed to Qatar, as well as those staying in England, and I highly recommend spending some time perusing to get the full picture. For the sake of this article, I’m only going to highlight the players most relevant to the Draft Fantasy EPL game (roughly the top 125 players).
Fantasy Relevant EPL Players Headed to the World Cup
At the time of writing, the teams with the current best odds to win the World Cup, in order of most to least likely, are: Brazil, France, England, Spain, Argentina, Germany, Belgium, Portugal and the Netherlands. It stands to reason these teams are also likeliest to make it to that Semi-Final threshold, with the following Premier League players most likely to play additional matches in December:
Brazil - Raphinha, Gabriel Jesus, Philippe Coutinho, Richarlison, Bruno Guimaraes, Thiago Silva
France - Lucas Digne, N’golo Kante, Aymeric Laporte
England - Harry Kane, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Bukayo Saka, Mason Mount, James Ward-Prowse, Reece James, Jack Grealish, Phil Foden, Raheem Sterling, Ben Chilwell, Kieran Trippier, Declan Rice, Luke Shaw
Spain - Thiago Alcantara, Rodri
Argentina - Emi Buendia, Alexis Mac Allister, Cristian Romero
Germany - Kai Havertz
Belgium - Kevin De Bruyne, Youri Tielemans, Leandro Trossard, Timothy Castagne
Portugal - Joao Cancelo, Bruno Fernandes, Cristiano Ronaldo, Diogo Jota, Bernardo Silva, Ruben Dias, Diogo Dalot
Netherlands - Virgil van Dijk
In addition to goalkeepers (who shouldn't be impacted as much as outfield players), there are quite a few names who are likely to be included in their World Cup squads without getting a huge amount of game time (ex. Jarrod Bowen, Jadon Sancho, Gabriel Martinelli and Marc Cucurella) that I’ve opted against including, though your mileage may vary as to how frequently you believe they’ll see the pitch. Use the spreadsheet to customize your list to your preferences!
Some other high-profile likely starters from teams with lower odds that you may also want to take into consideration are: Heung-Min Son, Christian Eriksen, Darwin Nuñez, Ivan Perisic, Matty Cash, Aleksandar Mitrovic, Harry Wilson, Christian Pulisic, Takehiro Tomiyasu and Thomas Partey.
Fantasy Relevant EPL Players Not Playing in the World Cup
Another way of assessing potential impacts of the tournament is to boost players in your rankings who are pretty much guaranteed a full Winter Break, as opposed to playing a game of probabilities to figure out who may need to be bumped a couple places down your ranks. Here are some of the likely starters from Premier League teams who almost certainly will not be participating in the tournament, and who are worth considering in the first 10 rounds of the draft:
Arsenal - Martin Odegaard, Kieran Tierney
Aston VIlla - Ollie Watkins, John McGinn
Brighton - Pascal Gross, Deniz Undav
Brentford - Ivan Toney, Ethan Pinnock, Bryan Mbeumo, Yoane Wissa
Bournemouth - Dominic Solanke
Chelsea - Hakim Ziyech
Crystal Palace - Wilfried Zaha, Michael Olise, Eberechi Eze
Everton - Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Anthony Gordon, Demarai Gray, James Tarkowski
Fulham - Andreas Pereira
Leeds - Jack Harrison, Patrick Bamford, Liam Cooper
Leicester - James Maddison, Jamie Vardy, Harvey Barnes, Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall
Liverpool - Mo Salah, Luis Diaz, Andrew Robertson, Joel Matip
Man City - Erling Haaland, Riyad Mahrez
Man United - Marcus Rashford
Newcastle - Allan Saint-Maximin, Callum Wilson, Matt Targett, Joelinton
Nottingham Forest - Taiwo Awoniyi
Southampton - Che Adams, Stuart Amstrong, Mohamed Elyounoussi
Tottenham - Dejan Kulusevski, Matt Doherty
West Ham - Michail Antonio, Tomas Soucek, Vladimir Coufal, Said Benrahma
Wolves - Daniel Podence, Rayan Ait-Nouri
As you finalize your draft prep, try not to overthink things too much and definitely don’t let the possibility of missing a couple games or facing some additional fatigue dissuade you from choosing players you would be happy to have on your roster. Use this resource along with the rest of our advice in the Draft Kit to help you arrive at the decisions that don’t come as easily.
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