Mohamed Salah could soon be caught in a tug-of-war between Liverpool and Egypt ahead of the upcoming Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON).<\/p>\n
The 33-year-old forward is expected to miss several of Liverpool\u2019s festive fixtures as he joins his national team for the tournament, scheduled from 21 December to 18 January in Morocco. Egypt are among the favourites to reach the latter stages, which could extend Salah\u2019s absence well into the new year.<\/p>\n
Reports from Egypt suggest that head coach Hossam Hassan plans to summon his players for a training camp two weeks before the competition begins \u2014 a move that could see Salah miss even more matches for the Reds. However, the winger is believed to prefer staying with Liverpool for as long as possible before joining the national team.<\/p>\n
According to Lewis Steele (Mail Sport), Salah will hold talks with Hassan next week to find an arrangement that works for both sides. Under current rules, Egypt are entitled to call him up a fortnight before AFCON starts, potentially ruling him out of Liverpool\u2019s Champions League clash at Inter Milan (9 December) and a Premier League game against Brighton (13 December).<\/p>\n
Salah\u2019s preference is reportedly to remain available for those fixtures before flying out to join Egypt, especially since Liverpool\u2019s early Carabao Cup exit leaves them with a lighter schedule around that time.<\/p>\n
In the best-case scenario, he\u2019d miss minimal club action if Egypt exit early, possibly returning in time for Liverpool\u2019s New Year\u2019s Day match against Leeds. But if the Pharaohs reach the semi-finals or final, he could be absent for up to eight games, including key trips to Tottenham and Arsenal.<\/p>\n
This would mark the third time Salah has departed mid-season for AFCON. His previous campaign in 2023 ended in frustration after an injury forced him to return early, disrupting his form and Liverpool\u2019s title chase.<\/p>\n
With Salah eager to stay in Merseyside for as long as possible, Liverpool manager Arne Slot will be hoping for understanding from Egypt\u2019s camp \u2014 and that both sides can agree on a compromise that keeps their star forward fit and focused.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Mohamed Salah could soon be caught in a tug-of-war between Liverpool and Egypt ahead of the upcoming Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON). The 33-year-old forward is expected to miss several of Liverpool\u2019s festive fixtures as he joins his national team for the tournament, scheduled from 21 December to 18 January in Morocco. Egypt are among …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":53788,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-53787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/salah-egypt-afcon-1200x672.jpg-1.webp","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53787","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=53787"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53787\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53789,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53787\/revisions\/53789"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/53788"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=53787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=53787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=53787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}