Mohamed Salah’s muscle injury is “worse than first thought”, according to Liverpool, which could keep him on the sidelines for nearly a month.
Salah, 31, sustained the injury in Egypt’s 2-2 draw with Ghana at the Africa Cup of Nations.
The club said the star forward will return on Wednesday for an “intensive rehabilitation programme” in hopes of “being back in action as soon as possible for club and country.”
The Egyptian Football Association and Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp initially said that Salah would only return to the tournament again if his nation advanced to a quarter-final.
However, Salah’s agent Ramy Abbas Issa suggested that the striker might be out for nearly a month.
“Mohamed’s injury is more serious than first thought and he will be out for 21-28 days, and not two games,” he wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
“His best chance at participating in the current AFCON is by undergoing intensive rehabilitation in the UK and rejoining the team as soon as he is fit.”
Egypt recently qualified for the knockout stage with a 2-2 draw against Cape Verde.
Klopp implied that Salah’s hamstring issue might be severe, given that he only missed 10 games for Liverpool in more than six seasons.
“He was shocked and couldn’t see why he was hit by something so intense,” Klopp said.
“You have these hamstring injuries in a different way.”
“He felt it, and we know how rarely Mo goes off or needs to go off.”
Salah has yet to win an Afcon title with Egypt, despite the nation holding a record of seven championships.
“I have won everything possible but this one, not yet,” he said.
“Everybody knows what it means to any player to win an Africa Cup.”
