Egypt played their one and only warm-up friendly before the Africa Cup of Nations on Tuesday without Mo Salah, with the Liverpool superstar lacking a run of starts ahead of the tournament
Egypt beat Nigeria 2-1 in their only warm-up friendly before the Africa Cup of Nations – but Mo Salah wasn’t involved. Salah, 33, has linked up with his international team-mates ahead of the 2025-26 edition of AFCON in Morocco, where he’ll captain the Pharaohs.
But the Liverpool star was left out of their matchday squad on Tuesday by manager Hossam Hassan. That’s despite Salah failing to start any of Liverpool’s last five games.
The forward was dropped by Arne Slot following a slump in his performances, and it got even worse for Salah when he made explosive comments during a bombshell post-match interview. After being an unused substitute during Liverpool’s 3-3 draw away to Leeds earlier this month, the Egyptian plunged his Anfield future into doubt.
Salah claimed that Liverpool had ‘thrown him under the bus’ and alleged that ‘someone’ wants him out of the club. The 33-year-old added that he no longer has ‘any relationship’ with Slot.
Having been left at home for Liverpool’s trip to face Inter Milan in the Champions League last week, showdown talks were held ahead of Saturday’s clash with Brighton. It resulted in Salah returning to the Reds’ squad and he ended up playing most of their 2-0 win, despite being named on the bench once again.
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But the Egypt captain wasn’t involved at all when the the Pharaohs played Nigeria. Salah had been a doubt after only landing in his home country in the early hours of Tuesday morning alongside Manchester City’s Omar Marmoush.
Mahmoud Saber and Mostafa Mohamed scored the goals for the hosts in Cairo, ensuring that they won their only warm-up friendly before starting their AFCON campaign next Monday. Egypt were drawn in a group alongside Zimbabwe, South Africa and Angola.
Salah will be hoping to lift the trophy for the first time in his career. “Of course I want to win something with the national team,” he said in 2022.
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“It’s my country, what I love the most. This trophy for me would be completely different, would be the closest to my heart. We were close before to win this (in 2017), we gave it everything but we were not lucky to win it.
“But it’s okay, now we are here in the new one. We have to fight for it, we have to give everything to win it and I’m sure the players have the same feeling.”
The final will take place in Rabat on January 18.
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