Egypt Coach Gives Update After Salah Forced Off During Match With Ghana

Mohamed Salah was forced to come off with an injury during Egypt’s group stage match against Ghana at the Africa Cup of Nations.

The Liverpool striker limped off the field of play on the stroke of half-time, having gone down requiring treatment for a suspected hamstring injury.

He was replaced by Mostafa Fathi, with the captain’s armband going to defender Ahmed Hegazi.

Egypt were dealt another blow just moments later. Mohammed Kudus’s powerful strike from outside the penalty box gave Ghana a 1-0 lead heading into half-time.

Omar Marmoush leveled for the Pharaohs after the break before Ghana retook the lead with Kudus’ second of the night. Mostafa Mohamed stabbed home a second equaliser as the match finished 2-2.

Egypt manager Rui Vitoria admitted it was too early to tell whether Salah had picked up a serious injury or not.

“I hope not (a big problem),” he said. “We don’t know yet what the problem is. I hope it’s not a big problem but it was a problem in the first-half.

“It was difficult timing for us because in the second half, we could only make two substitutions. But now, I don’t know. It’s early to see something, I think it’s not dangerous but let’s see if Salah recovers.”

Salah’s substitution will be of concern to Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp, whose team has already been depleted by injury.

Trent Alexander-Arnold, Dominik Szoboszlai, Andy Robertson, Kostas Tsimikas, Thiago Alcantara and Stefan Bajcetic are among the players currently on the sidelines.

Speaking about Salah’s injury during his press conference on Friday, Klopp said: “We don’t know anything. I spoke last night with him and how it is with these injuries, you need further assessment. That’s what they are doing now and then we will know more.

“Of course, it was in that moment a shock: ‘Oh my God, what is it?’ You couldn’t see that it was like [being] hit by something with high-intensity, you couldn’t see [that] and then going down, you have these kind of hamstring injuries in a different way but he still felt it and we all know how rarely Mo goes off or needs to go off so there is definitely something and we will see. But I have no more information right now.”

Previously, Klopp appeared confident Liverpool would “deal” with Salah’s absence during the Africa Cup of Nations, insisting the club’s attacking options such as Darwin Nunez, Luis Diaz and Cody Gakpo were sufficient “solutions”.