Egypt are pushing Mohamed Salah to the edge
Egypt are pushing Mohamed Salah to the edge with their Olympic announcement and Liverpool will be left to pick up the pieces.
Goal has reported that the Pharaohs will call Salah up for the U23 tournament this summer, which means the forward will probably miss the start of 2020/2021 season and will need extra time to recover.
If you combine this with his AFCON commitments, it means the star will feature in two international tournaments during the season and will miss a healthy chunk of games for Liverpool.
Sadio Mane will also represent Senegal during the African Cup of Nations, and now Jurgen Klopp has to find a way of forming an attack good enough to replace two key parts of it while they are away.
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AFCON is a different kettle of fish to the Olmypics though. The squad is allowed three non-U23 players in it, and their head coach Shawky Gharib has confirmed that Mohamed Salah will be a part of it.
This just increases the strain on a footballer who is supposed to be enjoying some time off during that period, but instead he will be overloaded with extra travel, extra games and less space to recover before the intense Premier League starts again.
And yes, it’s natural for the Egyptian FA to want their biggest names available but this is just the Olympics. Nobody in football takes it seriously, which is why this is just an U23 tournament. This is not mean to be the biggest stage, it’s a fairly pointless addition to an athletics competition.
Club vs country debates can get heated and every player should be allowed to pull on their national colours if they want, but both have a duty of care. That also means Jurgen Klopp should find a way to give him the time off he needs when Salah returns to Liverpool.
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But its time we strike a happy medium between the two, and stop risking players on pointless international games and ensuring clubs are able to give them the rest and recuperation that they need.