England captain Harry Kane and Brazil's Gabriel Jesus are among a host of Premier League stars who could buy themselves a potentially priceless break prior to the World Cup.
The Tottenham and Arsenal strikers have both picked up four yellow cards this season, meaning they're one away from serving a one-match ban. And should they collect another booking this weekend, they'll be suspended for their respective clubs' games next weekend – which sees the final round of fixtures before the tournament in Qatar kicks off.
Nine other Premier League stars hoping to head to the World Cup find themselves in the same boat, as highlighted by the Daily Mail. They are: Kane's Spurs teammate Rodrigo Bentancur (Uruguay); Jesus' Gunners colleague William Saliba (France); Manchester United's Diogo Dalot (Portugal); West Ham's Thilo Kehrer (Germany); Brighton's Alexis Mac Allister (Argentina); Bournemouth's Chris Mepham (Wales); Fulham's Aleksandar Mitrovic (Serbia); Everton's Amadou Onana (Belgium); and Newcastle's Fabian Schar (Switzerland).
It should be noted that bans for an accumulation of yellow cards (as opposed to suspensions for red cards) apply only to the competition in which those yellows were received, so if any of the above players were to be booked this weekend, they'd still be eligible to feature in Round Three of the Carabao Cup in midweek – but it's quite possible that some could be about to have their last domestic action until after Christmas.
Could we see a few tactical fouls or superfluous shirt removals this weekend? You wouldn't be surprised...
