Liverpool star Mohamed Salah has been excused from the latest Egypt squad as he’s given time to rest and recuperate over the forthcoming international break.
The Reds forward has already made 11 appearances in all competitions for Jurgen Klopp’s side in the 2019-20 campaign, while his 12th will come in the home meeting with Leicester City after he was named in the starting XI.
He will, however, have a period of rest after the game at Anfield on Saturday, with Egypt head coachย Hossam El-Badry deciding against selecting the 27-year-old in his squad for the friendly meeting with Botswana.
The Egyptian football federation wrote in an official statement: “The technical team of the national team confirms the decision to exempt Liverpool star Mohamed Salah from joining the current camp for the desire to rest him and ease the burden of games in this period.
“[That is] in order [for him] to recover and get rid of the stress resulting from his successive participation with his club so that he is in full physical and mental health to participate in the next official commitments.”
The news will certainly be welcomed by Liverpool and manager Jurgen Klopp, who will be pleased that one of his star names will now have more than a week to rest ahead of the Reds’ Premier League clash with Manchester United.
Salah has scored six goals so far this season, with two of them coming in the Reds’ 4-3 win over Red Bull Salzburg in the Champions League on Wednesday night.
Like team-mate Sadio Mane, it’s been a hectic last few months of football for Salah, with the former Chelsea winger having been involved in the Africa Cup of Nations with Egypt.
That meant he missed most of the club’s pre-season, although with Egypt knocked out of the competition at the last-16 stage he eventually joined his team-mates at Liverpool training on July 29.
Despite his status as Egypt’s most important and influential player, there have been various issues between Salah and his national federation, including a dispute over image rights in 2018 that led to the winger claiming he’d been “insulted”.
And it has also emerged that Salah missed out on votes for FIFA’s The Best Men’s Player of the Year award as Egypt’s former coach, Shawky Gharib, and captain, Ahmed Elmohamady, wrote the 27-year-old’s name in capital letters, thus meaning the entries were void.