Southampton boss George Burley has admitted losing Youssef Safri to the African Nations Cup will be a "big blow" to the Saints.Saturday's FA Cup clash against Leicester will be the midfielder's final game before the Moroccan departs for the competition held in Ghana.

Burley is now calculating the cost of losing the influential 31-year-old for up to five weeks and had called on the game's governing body to review the timing of the tournament.

"Youssef going will be a big blow. For me, he has been our most consistent player of the season," Burley told the club's official website.

"He has been a tremendous acquisition and he will be a big loss. We do have players in the squad to fill that role but he has been exceptional in the first half of the season.

"The timing of this competition is maybe something FIFA could look at but you know when you sign a player from Africa that you could lost them at this stage of the season and some clubs are a lot worse off than us."

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