Liverpool are set to lose Mo Salah to the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON), but they\u2019ll be able to keep him longer than first expected. Egypt manager Hossam Hassan had hoped to gather his squad this week ahead of the tournament in Morocco, where the Pharaohs open against Zimbabwe just three days before Christmas.<\/p>\n
Salah had planned to speak with his national team coach to stay with Liverpool until after their upcoming clash with Brighton, and it now appears he\u2019ll indeed be available for the Seagulls\u2019 trip to Anfield.<\/p>\n
When must Liverpool release Salah for AFCON?
\nAccording to Mail Sport, FIFA has granted clubs an extra seven days before releasing players for AFCON, pushing the mandatory release date back to 15 December instead of next Monday.<\/p>\n
This extension means Liverpool can use Salah for four more matches, including their Champions League tie away to Inter Milan and the Premier League meeting with Fabian H\u00fcrzeler\u2019s Brighton.<\/p>\n
Liverpool relieved to have Salah for a little longer
\nSunday\u2019s 2-0 win at West Ham acted as a preview of life without Salah, who remained an unused substitute at the London Stadium. Arne Slot\u2019s men showed they can cope in his absence, producing a composed and deserved victory.<\/p>\n
Still, despite the criticism he\u2019s faced this season, Salah remains Liverpool\u2019s joint-second top scorer with five goals. His experience and quality will be missed during tough away fixtures against Tottenham and Arsenal while he\u2019s on international duty.<\/p>\n
For now, though, Liverpool can count on him for the trip to the San Siro and the tricky Brighton test on 13 December. Even if he doesn\u2019t start, Slot will be reassured knowing Salah is available\u2014especially if injuries strike among the forwards.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Liverpool are set to lose Mo Salah to the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON), but they\u2019ll be able to keep him longer than first expected. Egypt manager Hossam Hassan had hoped to gather his squad this week ahead of the tournament in Morocco, where the Pharaohs open against Zimbabwe just three days before Christmas. Salah …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":55937,"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-55936","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\/12\/salah-afcon-768x431.jpg.webp","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55936","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=55936"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55936\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55938,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55936\/revisions\/55938"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/55937"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=55936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=55936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=55936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}