Liverpool has confirmed that Mohamed Salah is returning to England for treatment for a “worse than first feared” injury.
The Egyptian superstar sustained an injury while representing his country in the AFCON. A first diagnosis had him out of play for two games, but a second X-ray revealed a more serious ailment. With this in mind, Salah has decided to return to Anfield.
WHAT LIVERPOOL SAID ABOUT SALAH
Liverpool have said in a statement on the club’s official website: “Mohamed Salah will return to the AXA Training Centre on Wednesday to begin an intensive rehabilitation programme with Liverpool’s medical team on the muscle injury he sustained with Egypt last week. The injury, which is worse than first feared, forced the forward from the field in the first half of the Africa Cup of Nations fixture with Ghana and an agreement has been reached with the Egyptian FA for Salah to undergo treatment in Liverpool. Salah will immediately begin work with the club’s medical staff upon his return to Merseyside with a view to being back in action as soon as possible for club and country, giving him the best chance to return to compete at AFCON if Egypt, who qualified for the knockout stage with a 2-2 draw against Cape Verde tonight, continue to advance in the tournament.”
THE BIGGER PICTURE
Egypt’s national team doctor, Mohamed Abouela, has revealed how a collective call on Salah was made, telling ON Time Sports: “Mohamed Salah suffers from a strain in the back muscle of the second degree. When the first FA statement [said] that Salah would be out for only two games, we only had one X-ray on Salah, but after the second X-ray, we found it bigger. I don’t wait for someone to tell me how I work. I’m always doing enough to improve myself and I’m not the one to announce injuries and the timing, but my role is only to treat the players. We have enough potential but in two days we will travel to the poorly equipped city of San Pedro, so we found that his treatment at Liverpool would be better. Our agreement with Liverpool was two days ago, and the agreement was to announce the matter after the Cape Verde match, but Jurgen Klopp is the one who announced early (after the 4-0 win at Bournemouth on Sunday), and Salah himself did not want to travel and if he wanted to leave from day one. When will Salah return from injury with his treatment at Liverpool? I can’t say that because muscle injury depends on how much you get better on a daily basis. But I can say that we worked with Salah for four days well, and the player improved in them as well as possible.”
DID YOU KNOW?
Klopp was the first to reveal that Salah would be returning to England, and that did not go down well with Egypt head coach Rui Vitoria. He has said: “Mohamed Salah has an injury, which we learned before this game was a longer-term injury than we first thought, so we have had to prolong the amount of time before he can play again. Before the game we did not want to say anything. Meanwhile, everything was in the control of our excellent medical team. Given we were going to have to travel, given the temperatures, given that we were going to be going to a different city, maybe it makes sense that Salah should have a place he can go to recover as quickly as possible. We didn’t want to alarm anyone. I didn’t think it was right for Liverpool, via any intermediary, to speak about this, because we had a tremendously important game. Salah has always been with us. Now this game is over we will find the best solution for the treatment of the player. These are the facts. This is the situation.”
WHAT NEXT FOR SALAH?
Salah’s injury record during his time at Liverpool has been impressive, with the 31-year-old rarely missing games due to fitness concerns. He is now set for a spell on the sidelines as questions continue to be asked of whether his contract on Merseyside – which is due to run until 2025 – will be honoured.
