‘I wonder…’ – Journalist cites one potential positive for Liverpool if Salah misses City clash
Liverpool fans are eagerly awaiting to see if Mo Salah will recover from his muscle injury in time to face Manchester City on Sunday. The Egypt forward is in line to resume full training this week, fuelling hope that he could play a part in the showdown against Pep Guardiola’s side at Anfield, although one […]
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Liverpool fans are eagerly awaiting to see if Mo Salah will recover from his muscle injury in time to face Manchester City on Sunday.
The Egypt forward is in line to resume full training this week, fuelling hope that he could play a part in the showdown against Pep Guardiola’s side at Anfield, although one journalist has pointed out a potential positive for the Reds if the 31-year-old doesn’t feature at the weekend.
Our number 11 once again finds himself in the middle of a club-versus-country wrangle, with the Egyptian FA insisting that he’ll be called up for their March fixtures if he plays for Jurgen Klopp’s team in the meantime.
Speaking on The Redmen TV‘s Journo Insight show, Neil Jones said of Salah: “I’d be surprised if he’s involved against Sparta Prague, but I think Liverpool would love to have him for 20 minutes off the bench or whatever against City on Sunday. Fingers crossed.
“Klopp said there’s a chance he could come back to training this week. I wonder if he doesn’t come back to training this week and he misses that City game, would Liverpool actually say, ‘Swerve the next week, we’ll take an extra week to get you ready’?
“That would possibly rule him out of the Egypt squad anyway. Then you’ve got a fresh Salah coming back, hopefully completely healed and recovered for the post-international break fixtures.”
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Klopp could be facing a pivotal dilemma over whether or not to call upon Salah for the Man City clash on Sunday.
Jones makes a case for playing the long game with the 31-year-old – if the forward remains sidelined until the Egypt squad for their upcoming matches is named, and he’s duly omitted by Hossam Hassan, that gives him extra time on Merseyside to be in peak condition for the post-Easter run-in to the season.
However, if he’s in any way fit to play a part at the weekend, it’d seem foolish to leave out our top scorer for our biggest fixture of the campaign so far, especially considering his record against Guardiola’s side.
Salah has scored in all but one of City’s visits to Anfield since the start of 2018 and either netted or set up a goal in each of his last seven top-flight matches against the reigning champions (Transfermarkt).
If the Egyptian is able to feature on Sunday, he’ll almost certainly be called upon at some stage, even if it means losing him to national team duty later this month.
If he doesn’t make it in time for the weekend, at least it could have a positive longer-term effect for our season in terms of him being primed for the run-in – so long as his country’s FA stick to their vow that they won’t call him up unless he plays for Liverpool in the meantime.
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