As we’re sure you know by now, Liverpool will be without Mo Salah for their next few games due to his participation with Egypt at the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) this month.
The Reds will inevitably be hamstrung by the absence of their top scorer, but one of his teammates has reflected philosophically on the 31-year-old being away on international duty in the Ivory Coast.
Speaking to BBC Sport, Diogo Jota said: “We will be without him for this month, at least, and we need to survive. We know that we have the quality in our squad to fill that gap. Obviously, we would like to count on him to keep on going but we can see it as an injury, if you want.
“He’s not here but we know we have the squad to be able to win the games. Especially this month, we have the cup runs where Mo normally doesn’t play as much, so it is what it is. We have Arsenal and can only focus on Arsenal at the moment.”
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Of course we’d much prefer if AFCON didn’t overlap with the European club season and deprive Liverpool of Salah, but it can also be argued that there were far worse windows during the campaign when it could’ve happened.
As Jota points out, the Egyptian would probably have been rested for at least one of our cup matches this week, while we only have two more Premier League games to play in January, with one of those not until the 31st.
Had the African tournament been played last month, he’d almost certainly have missed a double-digit number of games for the Reds, even if Egypt didn’t progress particularly far.
Also, Liverpool would’ve known several months ago that Salah would be departing for Ivory Coast in January, so it’s not as if this has sprung up unexpectedly in the manner that an injury would.
His absence is offset by the recent return of Jota from his muscle problem, and the 27-year-old will be among those gunning to minimise the nuisance of his illustrious teammate being at AFCON this month.
If the Reds can come through the Salah-less period still top of the Premier League, it’ll set them up well to attack the final third of the season.