The AFC Women’s Asian Cup 2022 will take place in India from 20 January until 06 February and will also act as FIFA WWC 2023 qualifier, with four Arsenal players selected.

They are Lydia Williams (Australia), Steph Catley (Australia), Caitlin Foord (Australia), Mana Iwabuchi (Japan)

The quad are expected to miss a maximum of six games, depending on how deep they go into the tournament.

Australia have already qualified for the World Cup as hosts.

It is important to note that our rivals are also impacted by the tournament as 12 other players are also on their way to India.

They are Emily Gielnik (Aston Villa), Lee Geum-Min (Brighton), Sam Kerr (Chelsea), Ji So-yun (Chelsea), Alana Kennedy (Man City), Hayley Raso (Man City), Kyah Simon (Tottenham), Tang Jiali (Tottenham), Cho So-Hyun (Tottenham), Tameka Yallop (West Ham),Mackenzie Arnold (West Ham), Yui Hasegawa (West Ham).

It will be interesting to see the impact in the league and cups, as some of those players are key players for their team and will be missed as much as the Arsenal ones.

The Asian Cup has three groups of four teams, with the top two teams qualifying for the quarter-finals alongside the best two third-placed teams.

Then, it is a straight knock-out competition.

AFC Women’s Asian Cup 2022 groups

• Group A: India, China, Chinese Taipei, Iran
• Group B: Australia, Thailand, Phillipines, Indonesia
• Group C: Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, Myanmar

Five teams will qualify for the World Cup, apart from hosts Australia, while two teams will qualify for the 10-team inter-confederation play-offs, a new format created by FIFA as the Women World Cup is expanding from 24 to 32 nations.