According to Liverpool.com, Mohamed Salah, the star player for Liverpool, will travel to the Ivory Coast in the upcoming weeks to represent Egypt at the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON). Salah will miss a number of significant Premier League and cup games as a result of this departure.
Salah’s attention is now on an upcoming Premier League matchup between Arsenal and Chelsea. He will, however, soon turn his focus to AFCON. Due to this competition, Liverpool has had to deal with losing their best player for approximately a month every two years since Salah joined the team in 2017. Even though this recurrent problem is well-known, it nevertheless presents a big challenge for Liverpool and manager Jürgen Klopp, who will need to plan in January
The Ivory Coast is set to host the next AFCON, which will take place from January 13 to February 11. Salah will look to avenge Egypt’s heartbreaking penalty shootout loss to Senegal in the championship game of last year. Egypt plays its opening game on January 14 against Mozambique; they are in Group B with Ghana, Cape Verde, and Mozambique.
The Premier League will take a winter break in January for the first time since it was instituted in 2019–20. The schedule for the break has been set up so that games will still take place every weekend.
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Consequently, Salah may miss as many as seven games while playing for Egypt internationally, despite the fact that players will get a little more sleep.
Salah’s probable absences are partly due to Liverpool’s progress in the Carabao Cup. Salah scored in the team’s most recent 5-1 victory over West Ham, which guaranteed a two-leg semifinal matchup with Fulham, which will take place between January 8 and January 22. January also has an FA Cup match against Arsenal scheduled.
How many games Salah misses will depend on a number of factors. First of all, it’s still unclear when Salah will connect with his colleagues from Egypt. Premier League players were permitted to stay with their clubs until nine days prior to the start of the tournament in January 2022. Second, Salah’s return date will also depend on how Egypt does in the tournament. Salah’s first matchback could be in the Premier League on February 17 against Brentford if Egypt, the runners-up from the previous tournament, advance to the championship match on February 11.
Given his stellar record of 15 goals and 8 assists in 24 appearances across all competitions, Liverpool will surely feel Salah’s absence. Not only is he going to play for his country; Wataru Endō, a summer acquisition from Stuttgart, will travel with Japan to compete in the Asia Cup in Qatar from January 12 to February 10. However, given his experience handling similar circumstances, Klopp ought to be able to guide Liverpool through these difficulties—that is, assuming there aren’t any major injuries in the upcoming weeks.
According to Liverpool.com, Salah is expected to miss the two Carabao Cup games against Fulham and the FA Cup trip to Arsenal (as well as any potential fourth-round tie should the Reds advance). He might also miss games against Burnley and Arsenal. He will miss league matches against Bournemouth and Chelsea.
Clearly, Liverpool will miss him a great deal. But for that reason, in addition to the Egyptian, the Reds also have Diogo Jota, Cody Gakpo, Luis Díaz, and Darwin Núñez. Additionally, Harvey Elliott has presented a compelling case for playing off the right side.
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