Jurgen Klopp has been handed a major boost after Egypt boss Rui Vitoria confirmed that Mohamed Salah would be 'rested' for Tuesday's friendly against Liberia and free to jet back to Liverpool early.
The influential forward has endured a difficult start to the new Premier League campaign and had netted just twice in six domestic outings before the international break for the Reds, who have dropped points in four of their league matches already this term.
But Salah was back to his best in Egypt's impressive 3-0 win over Niger last week, netting twice for his country. And it has now been confirmed that Salah will be excused from this week's match against Liberia - news that will delight Klopp ahead of a hectic run of domestic fixtures.
An Egypt statement released at the weekend confirmed: “The technical staff of the Egyptian national team preferred to rest Mohamed Salah and Mostafa Mohamed for the Liberia friendly after both took part in the previous match against Niger.”
Klopp will be hoping that Salah can carry his international form into Saturday's meeting with Brighton as the Reds bid to claw their way up the Premier League table.
Liverpool are already nine points off the pace at the top of the league, but Klopp's side do have a game in hand on Arsenal, who are currently a point ahead of reigning champions Manchester City.
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Salah's uncharacteristically slow start to the season comes just months after he ended speculation over his Anfield future by penning a new long-term contract with the club. The 30-year-old had less than 12 months to run on his previous deal.
The former Chelsea and AS Roma man has spearheaded a new look frontline alongside Darwin Nunez after Sadio Mane decided to quit Liverpool in the summer. And although the Reds' new attack has endured some teething problems, Klopp hit back at suggestions that Salah was struggling because his remit had changed in the wake of Nunez's arrival.
"It’s not more than in other seasons, I’m not sure what you see there," Klopp insisted earlier this month following the 0-0 draw with Everton. "We don’t want to have that. We want to have Mo there in the position and we want to have, and have had Mo, in central positions as well.
"Today especially we wanted to use Mo a bit more centrally. But we didn’t have a lot of time to train. We only recovered. I spoke a lot of about it, I’m not sure I was clear enough what I exactly wanted in the first half.
"In the moments when we played and Mo dropped or Lucho [Diaz] dropped, after two or three passes, they were completely free in between the lines because Darwin kept the last line back with his pure presence.
"They like to drop pretty early but we didn’t do that often, you’re right. I don’t think in the season he’s too often wide but maybe today in a few moments yes. In general, he could’ve scored again in the last minute pretty much. So yeah, that’s it.”
