Egypt manager Rui Vitoria has seemingly hit out at Jurgen Klopp and Mohamed Salah’s agent ahead of the forward returning to Liverpool.
The 31-year-old suffered a hamstring injury in Egypt’s second group game at the Africa Cup of Nations and will return to Merseyside for treatment on Wednesday after the Pharaohs reached the knockout stages of the tournament. Klopp would reveal such a decision on Sunday after the Reds’ 4-0 thrashing of AFC Bournemouth.
Meanwhile, Salah’s agent, Ramy Abbas Issa, posted on social media on Monday evening, ahead of Egypt’s decisive final group game against Cape Verde, that his client’s injury was worse than first feared and would rule him out for three-four weeks.
Egypt had originally suggested that Salah would only be sidelined for that clash with Cape Verde and a potential round-of-16 tie, before later targeting a semi-final return. However, Abbas’ update suggests that the forward won’t be fit to return until the final.
Speaking after Egypt’s 2-2 draw with Cape Verde that clinched qualification, Vitoria took issue with the fact that such updates had been made public by any parties other than the national side. And he admitted that he ‘didn’t think it was right’ when explaining why the decision had been made for the forward to return to Liverpool.
“I want to take this opportunity to clarify things,” Vitoria said in his post-match press conference. “Mohamed Salah has an injury, which we learned before this game was a longer-term injury than we first thought, so we have had to prolong the amount of time before he can play again.
“Before the game we did not want to say anything. Meanwhile, everything was in the control of our excellent medical team.
“Given we were going to have to travel, given the temperatures, given that we were going to be going to a different city, maybe it makes sense that Salah should have a place he can go to recover as quickly as possible.
“We didn’t want to alarm anyone. I didn’t think it was right for Liverpool, via any intermediary, to speak about this, because we had a tremendously important game today.
“Salah has always been with us. Now this game is over we will find the best solution for the treatment of the player. These are the facts. This is the situation.”
