Salah limped off midway through Egypt’s 2-2 draw with Ghana at the Africa Cup of Nations, with Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp admitting he was shocked to see the 31-year-old actually succumb to an injury.
Egypt have now diagnosed Salah with a posterior muscle strain which will keep him sidelined for his side’s next two matches.
A statement read: “The X-rays that Mohamed Salah, the captain of the Egyptian national team, underwent showed that he suffered a strain in the posterior muscle, and he will miss the team’s next two matches in the Africa Cup of Nations against Cape Verde, and then the round of 16 match in the event of qualification.”
Egypt’s round of 16 clash, should they qualify, will come between January 27-29, but there appears to be a confidence that Salah would be fit for the quarter-finals across February 2-3.
Egypt currently sit second in Group B after drawing their first two fixtures of the tournament and can no longer finish in top spot, with upcoming opponents Cape Verde already booking a place in the next round with six points from a possible six.
Should Egypt fail to beat Cape Verde, they could lose second place to Ghana or Mozambique and would then rely on being one of the four best third-placed finishers. The odds are in their favour in that extreme case but Rui Vitoria will be keen to secure automatic qualification nonetheless.
If Egypt are knocked out, Salah would return to Liverpool at the end of this month. Such an injury timeline would rule him out of the visit of Chelsea on January 31 and put him in a race against time to recover for the trip to Arsenal on February 4.
