Southampton's Sofiane Boufal withdraws from Morocco squad

Morocco have revealed that Southampton midfielder Sofiane Boufal has pulled out of their squad for the upcoming Africa Cup of Nations due to injury.

The 23-year-old, who joined the Saints for a club-record £16m fee in the summer, was sent home from the Atlas Lions' training camp as the result of a fresh injury on the knee he underwent surgery on last year.

There had initially been confusion over Boufal's decision to withdraw, but Southampton boss Claude Puel cleared things up in his pre-match press conference ahead of Wednesday's EFL Cup semi-final showdown with Liverpool, revealing that he will likely be without the former Lille man for a few weeks.

Morocco are already without Younes Belhanda, Oussama Tannane and Nordin Amrabat for the Africa Cup of Nations, which gets underway in Gabon next week.