Liverpool manager Arne Slot has confirmed that Mohamed Salah will miss this weekend’s encounter with Brighton owing to a muscle problem.
Salah, 33, was withdrawn with a potential injury worry during the midweek European tie against Galatasaray in the Champions League. He bounced back to form by netting a stunning goal and providing a brilliant assist in the 4-0 triumph at Anfield, which secured Liverpool a 4-1 aggregate success over the Turkish outfit to book their place in the Champions League quarter-finals, where they will now meet Paris Saint-Germain next month.
Liverpool return to Premier League duties this weekend when they travel to take on Brighton in the Saturday lunchtime fixture, and will do so following a stalemate with Tottenham in their most recent league outing. But they will do so without their talismanic winger, reports the Mirror.
Slot said: “Unusual [he is injured], I think you expect the outcome so he is not available for tomorrow. Good thing for Liverpool is we go to international break, bad news for Egypt, he can’t go there.
“We hope with what Mo has shown in the past he can recovery faster than other players. He takes such good care of his body, he can be back earlier than others as history has shown. Only two weeks until we go again.”
Speaking about Salah’s situation at Anfield and his display against Galatasaray, Slot said: “His (Salah’s) first half was not too bad, whole team played well. Individuals, it’s helpful if the teams play well. They can then shine.
“It says a lot about his mental strength but that comes with age. If you miss chances, older you get, you get better at handling situations like this. He has always done this really well. He has done this so well in his career, to shut it down and create a goal and an assist, it is the experience he has.”
Slot subsequently confirmed regarding Salah’s issue: “It’s a muscle issue.”
Liverpool will enter the clash with Brighton occupying fifth position in the Premier League table and confront a challenging battle to secure Champions League qualification.
A top-four finish may be required for the Reds to earn a place in next season’s tournament, though fifth spot could also suffice depending on England’s position in UEFA’s coefficient rankings.
Liverpool trail fourth-placed Aston Villa by two points, sit five points behind third-placed Manchester United and hold just a one-point advantage over sixth-placed Chelsea.
“Injury-wise, he came off not because he [Salah] felt he had scored enough but because he felt something” Slot said on Wednesday after the win over Galatasaray. “So let’s see where he is for the weekend and afterwards.
“It says a lot about him that after you miss a penalty just before half time, that can sometimes be hard for an individual or for a team, so compliments to the team for how we came out in the second half.
“Because we have had a lot of setbacks this season, a lot of first halves or second halves where we have created chance after chance after chance without doing justice to how we have performed – so not scoring.
“And then Mo and the team came out in the second half they way they did, so he assisted Hugo, a great assist and then scored a trademark goal that he has scored so many times in this stadium and for this club, cutting inside, finding the corner.
“So that tells you a lot about his mental strength but definitely also of the team, because adversity is something we can definitely talk about in this season.”