Liverpool’s Mohammed Salah was forced off the field against Ghana courtesy of a hamstring injury. Jurgen Klopp shows concerns
See: Ranking Mohamed Salah’s Possible Replacements At Liverpool
Mohammed Salah gets hamstring injury: Liverpool fans are in for some bad news as Mohammad Salah was taken off in a 2-2 draw between Egypt and Ghana in the group stage of the African Cup of Nations.
Salah, who’s been Liverpool’s main man this season will surely be missed if the injury turns out to be a bad one and he’s sidelined for a bit longer.
Jurgen Klopp, who was reasonably concerned, also stated that he had solutions. However, it’s clear that the influence of Salah can simply not be brushed aside in Liverpool’s attacking dynamics.
Match Summary: Egypt 2-2 Ghana
Mohammed Salah gets hamstring injury
It was an evenly contested game for the most part as both sides defended well and made good use of their chances. However, Egypt were expected to come out on top as they had tallied an xG of 1.38 as opposed to Ghana’s measly 0.37.
Egypt had registered more shots, 11 in total whereas Ghana had registered 6. It seems though Ghana were far more efficient in front of goal despite having a lower xG.
Egypt also kept much of the ball with 58% possession and had tallied a passing accuracy of 83% as opposed to 81% for Ghana. Despite having more of the ball, Egypt lacked that cutting edge going forward.
Muhammad Kudus opened the scoring with a terrific strike outside the penalty box. However, Egypt were quick to respond as Omar Marmoush made it level but Ghana regained their lead thanks to another goal from Kudus. The game was brought back to level pegging once again owing to a goal close to the 70th minute by Mostafa Mohammed.
Salah was seen limping close to the culmination of the first half and was asked to leave the field as his injury aggravated.
Mohammed Salah: No Updates on Injury yet
Salah was taken off at halftime and left the pitch limping. He was seen holding his knee and hamstrings in pain and it didn’t look good for the Egyptians, whose hopes are loaded on the Liverpool man’s shoulders for AFCON glory.
However, Egypt’s manager Rui Vitoria says that it’s still not known whether he’ll be out of action for long. Speaking to the media after the match, he had this to say:
“I hope not (a big problem). We don’t know yet what the problem is. I hope it’s not a big problem but it was a problem in the first half.
“It was difficult timing for us because, in the second half, we could only make two substitutions. But now, I don’t know. It’s early to see something, I think it’s not dangerous but let’s see if Salah recovers.”
What does this mean for Liverpool?
It seems that the Reds will now be splurging a bit more on their hospital bills. Their season has been badly struck with a long list of injuries, something that they’ve been immune from for quite some time.
Trent Alexander-Arnold, Dominik Szoboszlai, Andy Robertson, Kostas Tsimikas, Thiago Alcantara, and Stefan Bajcetic are all sidelined due to injury woes. With the exclusion of Salah from action, Liverpool’s title hopes might just face some friction.
However, Klopp is confident that this can be dealt with, stating that he has plenty of attacking options in the form of Darwin Nunez, Cody Gakpo, Diogo Jota, and others. This will also provide them with the right amount of Gametime to build some more confidence along the way. Klopp states:
“We have to get through this,”
“We know the Africa Cup of Nations appears and Mo has to go, and so we have to deal with it, that was always clear.”
