Ian Wright believes you have to feel for Mohamed Salah after Egypt missed out on a place in this year’s World Cup.
While fellow ITV Sport pundit Roy Keane believes it is just the 'nature of the beast' that big players will be absent from the competition that starts in November.
Senegal and Egypt went head to head in the second leg of their qualifier on Tuesday night - with Reds team-mates Sadio Mane and Salah on opposing sides. Salah’s Egypt side held a 1-0 lead from the first leg.
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Villarreal striker Boulaye Dia opened the scoring for Senegal in the early minutes of the second leg to make it 1-1 on aggregate. And after 120 minutes of football couldn’t separate the two teams, the tie was decided by a penalty shoot-out.
Salah missed his spot-kick but fellow Liverpool forward Mane scored to send Senegal through to this winter’s World Cup in Qatar.
“The CAF (Confederation of African Football), it’s very tough to qualify out of. You have 54 countries and five spots,” Wright said.
“You are going to miss out on a Salah at a World Cup. You feel for him, but at the same time, you have to win your games. He missed his penalty and I am hearing a lot of stuff about how he missed it (referencing to the lasers aimed at his face ).
“But the fact is that it’s tough. No Nigeria. No Egypt. It seems very tough on the African nations.”
Before Keane added: “It’s tough going. Not every team can qualify for it, unfortunately. I am sure they will bounce back.
“There are going to be some brilliant players missing from that World Cup. But that’s just the nature of the beast, so that’s tough going.”
