It's proved to be a contentious issue over the past year, but the UK has finally triggered Article 50 to start the actual process of leaving the European Union.

Brexit is already expected to impact the game in one way or another, and it's already starting to seep into our consciousness as games like Football Manager have even added a feature to show what life in the game will be like after the UK eventually moves out.

Foreign players may soon be harder to come by as EU nationals' rights to continue living and working in the UK are still yet to be agreed, meaning clubs may soon be forced to rely more heavily on their youth academies.

All 20 clubs in the English top flight have at least a handful of foreign players on their books, but there is one club in particular who are set to suffer the most, according to the Daily Mirror.

So far this season, a total of 222 Premier League appearances have been made by EU nationals at Chelsea – more than anyone else in the league.

And a further 73 appearances have been players from outside the EU or with dual nationality, like David Luiz for example, who holds a Portuguese passport as well as a Brazilian one.

That means that altogether, there has been a total of 273 appearances (74% of all appearances) made by players who could be impacted by the effects of a 'hard Brexit'.

No other club comes close to Chelsea in that regard, and 45 out of their 58 goals have come from players with EU nationality.

Manchester City is second with 59% of their appearances coming from EU nationals and West Ham (57%), Arsenal (54%) and Middlesbrough (53% all follow closely behind.

Only Hull and Burnley escape relatively unscathed with EU players making just five per cent of their clubs' appearances, respectively.

The list goes as follows:

Chelsea: 74%
Man City: 59%
West Ham: 57%
Arsenal: 54%
Middlesbrough: 53%
Man United: 51%
Liverpool: 50%
Watford: 50%
Tottenham: 49%
Swansea: 47%
Sunderland: 40%
Southampton: 36%
Leicester: 33%
Stoke: 29%
Everton: 25%
Crystal Palace: 24%
West Brom: 21%
Bournemouth: 10%
Burnley: 5%
Hull: 5%

It's not yet known how football will adapt to the UK leaving Europe, but judging by the look of it the game may very well suffer.

There are those who believe that it will be to the benefit of younger English players who may have more game time, but the Premier League was built on combining the best of British with all the exciting foreign players it was able to attract.

We'll just have to wait and see...