The Hearts games Landry Kabore will miss as he is named in Burkina Faso's squad for AFCON 2025
Africa Cup of Nations duty precludes the striker from SPFL fixtures
Burkina Faso today named Hearts forward Landry Kabore in their 25-man squad for the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations. He will miss at least three of the Edinburgh club’s upcoming Scottish Premiership matches, potentially more if his country progress to the tournament’s knockout phase.
Brama Traoré, the Burkinabe head coach, included Kabore in his AFCON squad after the player struck back-to-back international hat-tricks. He scored all his team’s goals in October’s 3-1 World Cup qualifying win over Ethiopia, then claimed another treble in a 3-2 friendly win against Niger last month.
This year’s Africa Cup of Nations is hosted by Morocco and runs from 21 December to 18 January. Burkina Faso are in Group E alongside Algeria, Equatorial Guinea and Sudan. They face Equatorial Guinea on 24 December, Algeria on 28 December and Sudan on 31 December in an effort to reach the knockout stages. The FIFA deadline for clubs to release players for the tournament is 15 December, although some teams will let people join up with their countries earlier.
Hearts are preparing to be without Kabore for three league games initially: Rangers at Tynecastle on 21 December, Hibs at Easter Road on 27 December, and Livingston at Tynecastle on 3 January. He will be available for this Saturday’s visit to Falkirk before heading off to join his international team-mates.
Burkina Faso have a reasonable chance of reaching the AFCON knockout phase, with the last-16 ties spread across 3, 4 , 5 and 6 January. Quarter-finals are on 9 and 10 January, semi-finals on 14 January, with the final on 18 January. Hearts will be watching Burkina Faso’s matches closely to monitor Kabore’s performances and to see when he might return to Scotland.
Riccarton management must wait to discover if Kabore will be back in time for a key period of the season as they embark on three fixtures inside a week following the Livingston game. Derek McInnes’ side visit Dundee on Sunday, 11 January, then host St Mirren three days later before the Scottish Cup fourth-round tie against Falkirk on the weekend of Saturday, 17 January.
Kabore is a regular in McInnes’ squad after completing a transfer from the Estonian side JK Narva Trans during the summer. He has made nine appearances for Hearts, six of which came in the starting line-up, and scored two goals so far. Both of those came in the 4-0 win against Dundee on 1 November. His latest outing was as a substitute for Claudio Braga during Sunday’s impressive 2-1 win over Celtic at Celtic Park, which took Hearts three points clear at the top of the Scottish Premiership.
Several other Scottish teams will also miss players because of Africa Cup of Nations commitments over the next few weeks. Motherwell forward Tawanda Maswanhise is expected to be named in Zimbabwe’s squad, Rangers defender Nasser Djiga is also in the Burkina Faso squad with Kabore and will miss the Hearts match at Tynecastle, while DR Congo called up Celtic’s Michel-Ange Balikwisha and Hibs’ Rocky Bushiri. Celtic’s Sebastian Tounekti could also earn a place in Tunisia’s squad.
BURKINA FASO AFCON 2025 SQUAD:
Goalkeepers: Kouakou Hervé Koffi, Kylian Baasba Nikiema, Soufiane Farid Ouedraogo.
Defenders: Yacouba Nasser Djiga, Adamo Nagalo, Issoufou Dayo, Edmond Faycial Tapsoba, Issa Kabore, Kan Guy Arsène Kouassi, Steeve Farid Yago, Abdoul Rachid Ayinde.
Midfield: Ismahila Ouedraogo, Saidou Simpore, Ibrahim Blati Toure, Gustavo Fabrice Sangare, Stéphane Aziz Ki, Cédric Badolo, Mohamed Zoungrana.
Forwards: Bertrand Isidore Traore, Georgi Minoungou, Dango Aboubacar Ouattara, Bi Kalou Cyriaque Irie, Pierre Landry Kabore, Lassina Franck Traore, Ousséni Bouda.