2022 World Cup: Best Premier League XI of players not going, including Salah and Haaland

With the World Cup strangely falling slap bang in the middle of the Premier League season for the upcoming campaign, certain clubs are set to gain a significant advantage with some player’s national teams failing to qualify.

From a player’s perspective, missing out on one of few chances they’ll get to participate in a World Cup is a total nightmare.

However, you can guarantee that whilst they won’t openly admit it, some Premier League clubs will be secretly rubbing their hands together at the prospect of their stars getting a nice winter break whilst their rivals’ risk injury and tired legs overseas.

The reason we say ‘some clubs’ is because there are a few Premier League sides that have gotten off rather lightly when it comes to their players making the trip to Qatar.

Naturally, the further you look down the traditional Premier League food chain towards the bottom end of the league with the smaller wage bills, the less international representatives those teams have – so that could be an interesting dynamic over the winter break.

Although, it’s not entirely evenly spread towards the top half of the table either, and a couple of the big hitters might have a distinct advantage in that sense.

Taking all that into consideration then, and to show you all the best stars that are set to gain a few extra weeks of rest across the winter season, we thought we’d create the best XI of Premier League players not going to the World Cup – check it out below.

GK – Martin Dubravka (Slovakia) – Newcastle United

Slovakia failed to qualify for the World Cup this year, and so Dubravka will have to wait until 2026 to get his first opportunity to play in football’s premier tournament.

His compatriot and Fulham keeper, Marek Rodak,