The Egyptian FA have eased concerns over Mo Salah’s fitness, amid fears he had aggravated a foot injury on international duty.
The Liverpool star proved the decisive factor in his country’s 1-0 win over Senegal, in the first leg of their high profile World Cup qualifying tie which will see the winners progress to the finals in Qatar. But after seeing his early shot cannon back off the crossbar and go in off defender Saliou Ciss for what proved the winner in the home leg for Egypt, Salah looked troubled, and far from his best.
That provoked suspicions from Reds fans he was still suffering from the foot injury he picked up playing for his club against Brighton two weeks ago, which saw him benched against Arsenal and miss the FA Cup tie with Nottingham Forest completely. The FA in Egypt though, responded as their team travelled to Dakar for the second leg against old foe Senegal. Egypt will be without their two first-choice centre-backs: Mahmoud Hamdy El-Wensh is suspended for the return game, while Mohamed Abdelmonem broke his nose in the first leg and required surgery which has ruled him out of the decider.
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But in the statement which announced that El-Wensh would travel with the squad but miss the game, the governing body suggested Salah is fit and available for the contest: “We have no further injury issues for the qualifying tie, all of the rest of the players in the squad travelled to Senegal, and coach Carlos Quieroz has no further injury issues.”
Egypt are favourites after that crucial goal in the first leg, but Senegal beat Salah’s nation in the final of the Africa Cup of Nations only 47 days ago, making this an intriguing contest between the continent’s current two best teams.
There has been some serious outrage though, that only one will be going to the World Cup finals, with Africa allocated just five spaces for the tournament in Qatar at the end of the year. It means there will be several big nations failing to reach the finals, with the likes of Cameroon playing Algeria, Ghana against Nigeria and DR Congo vs Morocco meaning some of the continent’s best teams won’t be present in Qatar.
