Egypt forward Mohamed Salah will return to Liverpool for treatment on the leg injury he picked up at the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON).
Salah was injured during Egypt's 2-2 draw with Ghana in their Group B fixture on Thursday. While the severity of Salah's injury remains unclear, his national team is still hopeful he can make a comeback if they qualify for the semi-finals.
Meanwhile, even without Salah, Liverpool have maintained their lead in the Premier League title race, with their latest victory coming over Bournemouth on Sunday. Ahead of the fixture, head coach Jurgen Klopp said that it would make sense if Salah did his rehabilitation with the club.
"However long he's out, probably everybody sees it like this, it makes sense that he's doing the rehab with us or with our people. If that's written in stone already, I don't know. I spoke with him directly after, the night when it happened. Since then he's been in contact with our doctor. I think he will be back," said Klopp.
Klopp's statement came just before Egypt confirmed the player's return to Merseyside.
Salah's rehab at Liverpool
Egypt are due to take on Cape Verde on Monday and will reach the knockouts with a win.
Egypt have confirmed that Salah will miss their next two matches if they progress to the knockout rounds of the tournament in the Ivory Coast. Salah will fly back to the United Kingdom after Egypt's Group B finale game on Monday night.
"After additional examinations were conducted on Mohamed Salah during the last hours, and after communication between the national team's medical staff and his counterpart at Liverpool FC, it was decided that the player will return to England after the Cape Verde match tomorrow to complete his treatment, with the hope that he will join the national team in the semi-final of the AFCON if we qualify," read Egypt Football Association's statement.
The Egyptian Football Association had initially said that Liverpool forward Salah would feature in the tournament again if his country advanced to a quarter-final, which will take place on Feb. 2 or 3.
Klopp reacts to Salah's situation
When reporters on Sunday asked Klopp if Salah would go back to AFCON if Egypt progressed to the knockouts, the German boss replied: "I would say if Egypt qualifies for the final, if he's fit before the final, then probably yes."
Earlier in the week, Klopp had also suggested that Salah's hamstring problem was likely to be "intense", given the Egyptian forward had missed just 10 league games for the Anfield side in more than six seasons.
"He was shocked and couldn't see why he was hit by something so intense. You have these hamstring injuries in a different way. He felt it and we know how rarely Mo goes off, or needs to go off, so it is definitely something," added Klopp.
The last of Egypt's seven titles at the AFCON came in 2010, a year before Salah made his international debut and they finished runners-up in the 2017 and 2021 editions.
He netted a late penalty last Sunday to help Egypt draw 2-2 with Mozambique to avoid an embarrassing loss in their opening fixture of the tournament.
Meanwhile, Salah believes he will win the AFCON trophy, "sooner or later".
"I would love to win it, absolutely. It will happen somehow - that is what I believe. Whatever I believe, I achieve - so sooner or later, it will happen. I have won everything possible but this one, not yet. Everybody knows what it means to any player to win an Africa Cup.
"The players are very motivated to win the tournament. I believe that, with hard work, everything is possible, so we just need to win one game to qualify and we go from there," the Egyptian King added.
