Emmanuel Adebayor is Heading to the African Cup of Nations

Yes, that's right. Togo have named Emmanuel Adebayor to their squad for the upcoming African Cup of Nations. The Tottenham striker will be available for this weekend's match against Harry Redknapp (I mean, Queens Park Rangers) and then will travel to South africa to join-up with his teammates. Adebayor is Togo's captain and will be looking to help his country advance out of a very tough group that includes the Ivory Coast and Algeria.

Adebayor's departure leaves Tottenham Hotspur with only one senior striker (two if you count Clint Dempsey, which I don't). That means that from Saturday until at least January 30th, when Togo plays their final group stage match, Spurs will have only Jermain Defoe as their striker. Should Togo manage to qualify for the knockout stages of the competition it could be Valentine's Day before Adebayor returns to Tottenham, making it nearly a month that Tottenham will be without his services.

Adebayor will definitely miss the matches against Manchester United, the FA Cup match against either Leeds or Birmingham City, and the match at Norwich City. A longer stay in South Africa could see him miss matches at West Brom and against Newcastle.

On the face of it, those aren't too big of matches for Adebayor to be missing, but we did have slip-ups against Norwich and West Brom early in the season without Adebayor so his presence certainly would be useful. That said, the ACON could be an excellent opportunity for Adebayor to really get back on form. If he were to score three or four goals for Togo that might to wonders for his confidence.

The major issue is that we are now a Jermain Defoe injury away from starting Clint Dempsey as our lone striker in some Premier League matches and that just doesn't appeal to me. Daniel Levy needs to find someway to get another striker in and soon.