Watford manager Claudio Ranieri has said the Premier League side needs to brace for the loss of some players to the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) which gets underway from January 9 to February 6 in Cameroon.

Ranieri said this after Watford’s 1-0 loss to Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday.

“My players did everything to try to win and not concede a goal. We knew they wanted to have more space to play, and we closed all the space behind us,” he told Watford website.

“Now I lose some players [to the African Cup of Nations], so we have to do something. We will see. We are speaking every day with the board and I’m sure they will try to do something good for us.”

Watford will release players such as William Troost-Ekong (Nigeria), Nocolas Nkoulou (Cameroon), Adam Masina (Morocco) and Ismaila Sarr (Senegal) to AFCON.

However, Watford will not release striker Emmanuel Dennis Watford on the grounds that the Nigerian federation did not request him for the tournament in time.

Earlier, Ranieri said Nigeria missed the deadline to inform Watford of their intention to select him.

Ranieri also touched on Dennis who was replaced later on in the game due to a knock.

“He had a little injury problem before, and he felt something as well, so we took a precaution,” Ranieri told the website.

“Before the match he wasn’t 100 per cent and I saw he was a little nervous during the match, so I changed and put on João Pedro who played a very good match.”

During the game, Watford succumbed to Davinson Sanchez’s headed goal on Sunday.