Mo Salah’s agent has provided Liverpool fans with the update they didn’t want to hear on Monday evening.
Ramy Abbas took to social media to post a projected timeline for the injury that the 31-year-old incurred during Egypt’s 2-2 draw against Ghana at the Africa Cup of Nations last Thursday.
The country’s FA initially indicated that the Reds winger would miss their next two matches, but the body blow is actually more serious than that.
Salah’s agent posted on X: “Mohamed’s injury is more serious than first thought and he will be out for 21-28 days, and not 2 games. His best chance at participating in the current AFCON is by undergoing intensive rehabilitation in the UK and rejoining the team as soon as he is fit.”
Mohammed’s injury is more serious than first thought and he will be out for 21-28 days, and not 2 games.
His best chance at participating in the current AFCON is by undergoing intensive rehabilitation in the uk and rejoining the team as soon as he is fit.— Ramy Abbas Issa (@RamyCol) January 22, 2024
Abbas contradicts himself somewhat by stating that his client will be sidelined for at least three weeks, by which stage AFCON will have finished, so we can take it that Salah’s participation in that tournament is over irrespective of how far Egypt progress.
However, we’d venture to suggest that many Liverpool fans stopped reading after the first sentence of his tweet and were instead left despairing at the reality that our top scorer is now out of action for a month.
That means he’ll miss four Premier League games, including Chelsea’s visit to Anfield and the crucial trip to Arsenal, and he could even be in a race against time to be fit for the Carabao Cup final on 25 February if the Reds are involved in that fixture, should they negotiate the semi-final leg against Fulham in midweek.
We’ve become so accustomed to Salah avoiding injury that the thought of him missing several matches in a row seems nearly incomprehensible, but that’s the reality with which LFC must now contend.
The only silver lining to this massive blow for Liverpool is that the likes of Darwin Nunez and Diogo Jota are stepping up to deliver in the absence of their teammate. We’ll need them, and indeed others, to keep producing the goods while our iconic number 11 recovers.
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Why despair?
Salah was likely to be missing to around 19th Feb. He will probably miss similar period but now be rested.