Arne Slot looks set to be handed a massive boost to his pre-season plans ahead of his first campaign in charge of Liverpool.
Several Reds players are currently away on international duty at Euro 2024 or the Copa America, and the upcoming Olympic Games could also feature a couple of Anfield stars.
However, it now appears that Mo Salah won’t be among the footballers descending on Paris in just under a month’s time, with the Liverpool Echo reporting that the Egyptian FA are ‘90% sure’ the superstar forward will instead link up with LFC for their pre-season tour to USA.
Liverpool have already had to do without Salah mid-season on a couple of occasions due to the Africa Cup of Nations taking place in January/February, so it’ll come as a great relief to Slot that the 32-year-old seemingly won’t be going to the Olympics.
The Reds’ case is helped by the tournament in Paris occurring outside a FIFA international window, thus removing any obligation on clubs to release their players for the event.
While the Egyptian doesn’t exactly have a whole lot to prove this summer after seven exceptional years at Anfield, it’ll still be hugely beneficial to have him involved with the Reds as our new head coach gets his first opportunity to work with the squad and begin implementing his ideas.
How galling would it be for Liverpool to allow Salah go to the Olympics despite not being required to do so, only to then see him suffer an injury which’d force him to miss a sizeable chunk of the season?
When the Games were last held three years ago, LFC blocked his participation in Tokyo, and it turned out to be a wise move as he was duly free to feature on the opening day of the Premier League season and score in a 3-0 win at Norwich.
Here’s hoping he can make a similar impact (and his team achieve a similar result) in a different part of East Anglia when we travel to Ipswich in Slot’s first competitive match in charge of the Reds on 17 August.
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