Liverpool are set to lose Mo Salah to the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON), but they\u2019ll now have him for longer than first expected.<\/p>\n
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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
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Salah had planned to speak with his national team coach in hopes of staying with Liverpool until after the Reds face Brighton next weekend \u2014 and it now appears he will indeed be available for that clash at Anfield. According to Mail Sport, FIFA have approved an extra seven days for clubs to keep their AFCON-bound players, moving the release date from next Monday to 15 December.<\/p>\n
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This adjustment means Liverpool can keep Salah for their next four fixtures, including the Champions League trip to Inter Milan and the Premier League showdown with Fabian Hurzeler\u2019s Brighton. Sunday\u2019s 2-0 win over West Ham acted as a preview of life without the No.11, with Salah unused on the bench at the London Stadium.<\/p>\n
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Arne Slot\u2019s team handled the challenge well, delivering a composed and deserved victory even without their Egyptian star. Still, despite the criticism he\u2019s faced this season, Salah remains the club\u2019s joint-second top scorer with five goals. His presence and experience will certainly be missed during tough away matches against Tottenham and Arsenal while he\u2019s away in Morocco.<\/p>\n
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For now, Liverpool can count on him for the upcoming San Siro trip and the always-demanding Brighton clash on 13 December. Even if he doesn\u2019t start, having him available offers Slot reassurance \u2014 especially in case injuries hit the forward line.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Liverpool are set to lose Mo Salah to the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON), but they\u2019ll now have him for 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","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-55940","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\/55940","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=55940"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55940\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55944,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55940\/revisions\/55944"}],"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=55940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=55940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eplbanter.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=55940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}