Mohamed Salah injury update as Arne Slot reveals latest on Liverpool star
Liverpool boss Arne Slot has confirmed that Mohamed Salah is ruled out for the weekend's clash with Brighton due to a muscle injury. Salah was substituted with a potential injury concern during the midweek clash with Galatasaray in the Champions League.
Salah got a goal and an assist in the 4-0 victory at Anfield which saw Liverpool claim a 4-1 aggregate victory over the Turkish club to reach the quarter-final of the Champions League, where they will now face Paris Saint-Germain next month.
Liverpool are back in Premier League action this weekend where they will travel to face Brighton in the Saturday lunchtime kick-off, and will do so on the back of a draw with Tottenham Hotspur in their previous top-flight fixture.
Salah was withdrawn in the second half of Liverpool’s win over Galatasaray with a suspected injury and walked straight down the tunnel after his exit rather than join his team-mates on the bench.
Slot has now provided an update on Salah’s fitness ahead of the clash against Brighton this weekend.
• Milos Kerkez’s verdict on Liverpool’s win vs Galatasaray speaks volumes as PSG await
• Liverpool set for Champions League boost as PSG to be denied repeat of Chelsea advantage
“Unusual [he is injured], I think you expect the outcome so he is not available for tomorrow,” Slot told reporters on Friday. “Good thing for Liverpool is we go to international break, bad news for Egypt, he can't go there.
“We hope with what Mo has shown in the past he can recovery faster than other players. He takes such good care of his body, he can be back earlier than others as history has shown. Only two weeks until we go again.”
FOLLOW OUR LIVERPOOL FB PAGE!
Discussing Salah's situation at Anfield and his performance against Galatasaray, Slot added: "His (Salah's) first half was not too bad, whole team played well. Individuals, it's helpful if the teams play well. They can then shine.
"It says a lot about his mental strength but that comes with age. If you miss chances, older you get, you get better at handling situations like this. He has always done this really well. He has done this so well in his career, to shut it down and create a goal and an assist, it is the experience he has."
Slot later confirmed with regards to Salah's problem: "It's a muscle issue."
Liverpool will go into the game against Brighton in fifth place in the Premier League table and face an uphill task to qualify for the Champions League.
A top-four finish may be needed for the Reds to qualify for next season’s competition, although fifth place could also be enough depending on where England rank in UEFA’s coefficient standings.
Liverpool are two points behind fourth-placed Aston Villa, five points adrift of third-placed Manchester United and just one ahead of Chelsea, who are sixth.
"Injury-wise, he came off not because he [Salah] felt he had scored enough but because he felt something” Slot said on Wednesday after the win over Galatasaray. "So let's see where he is for the weekend and afterwards."
"It says a lot about him that after you miss a penalty just before half time, that can sometimes be hard for an individual or for a team, so compliments to the team for how we came out in the second half.
"Because we have had a lot of setbacks this season, a lot of first halves or second halves where we have created chance after chance after chance without doing justice to how we have performed - so not scoring.
"And then Mo and the team came out in the second half they way they did, so he assisted Hugo, a great assist and then scored a trademark goal that he has scored so many times in this stadium and for this club, cutting inside, finding the corner.
"So that tells you a lot about his mental strength but definitely also of the team, because adversity is something we can definitely talk about in this season."