Egypt played their only warm-up friendly before the African Cup of Nations on Tuesday without Mo Salah, with the Liverpool superstar missing his starting XI for the tournament.
Egypt defeated Nigeria 2-1 in their only warm-up friendly before the African Cup of Nations, but Mo Salah did not play. Salah, 33, has been linking up with his national team-mates ahead of the 2025-26 edition of AFCON in Morocco, where he will captain the Pharaohs.
However, the Liverpool star was left out of Tuesday’s match-day squad by manager Hossam Hassan. This is despite Salah not starting any of Liverpool’s last five games.
The forward was dropped by manager Arne Slott following poor performances, a situation made worse by Salah’s explosive post-match comments. The Egyptian left his future at Anfield in doubt after coming off the bench in Liverpool’s 3-3 draw away at Leeds earlier this month.
Salah claimed that Liverpool had “thrown him under the bus” and that “someone” was trying to force him out of the club. The 33-year-old added that he no longer has “any relationship” with Slott.
Liverpool were left at home to face Inter Milan in the Champions League last week, but face-off talks were held ahead of Saturday’s game against Brighton. As a result, Salah returned to the Reds’ squad and played most of the match, which ended up being a 2-0 win, although he was once again on the bench.
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However, when the Pharaohs played against Nigeria, the Egyptian captain was not involved at all. Salah was a doubt after arriving in his home country early on Tuesday morning along with Manchester City’s Omar Marmouche.
Mahmoud Saber and Mostafa Mohamed scored the goals for the hosts in Cairo, securing victory in their only preliminary match before starting their AFCON campaign next Monday. Egypt was chosen in the same group as Zimbabwe, South Africa and Angola.
Salah will be hoping to lift the trophy for the first time in his career. “Of course I want to win something with the national team,” he said in 2022.
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“It is my country and what I love the most. For me this trophy is something completely different and will be the one closest to my heart. We were close to winning this before (in 2017), we gave everything but we were not lucky to win it.”
“But it’s okay, now we come to a new team. We have to fight for it and give everything to win. I’m sure the players feel the same way.”
The final will be held in Rabat on January 18th.
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