Salah gives Egypt hope

Liverpool forward Mohamed Salah will be fit to play some part in Egypt’s World Cup campaign, his country says. Salah injured his shoulder during Liverpool’s Champions League final loss to Real Madrid on Saturday, prompting concerns he might miss the tournament. But Egypt’s national team doctor has met Salah, and the country’s football association said the striker’s absence “will not exceed” three weeks.

Egypt’s opening World Cup fixture is against Uruguay on 15 June. Salah, 25, met the national team doctor and Egyptian FA president Hany Abu Rida in Spain on Wednesday. The Egyptian FA tweeted afterwards: “After the meeting of Abu Rida and the doctor of the national team in Spain today, the Football Association reaffirms Salah in the World Cup, God willing, will not exceed the absence of three weeks.”

Egypt’s second fixture is against Russia on 19 June and they conclude their group against Saudi Arabia on 25 June. Salah struck a 95th-minute penalty in Egypt’s final qualification game to send them to the World Cup for the first time in 28 years. But in the Champions League final – the last fixture of a season in which he scored 44 goals for his club – he left the pitch in tears after landing heavily on his shoulder following a challenge by Real Madrid’s Sergio Ramos.

At the time Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp described the injury as “really serious” but in the aftermath of the final, the Egyptian FA had tweeted that Salah’s X-ray showed he had a “sprain in the shoulder ligaments” and that it was “optimistic” he would be fit for the World Cup in Russia.

BBC