THEY SAID IT...

“I have won everything possible but this one not yet. It will happen somehow, that is what I believe, and whatever I believe I achieve, so sooner or later it will happen. Everybody knows what it means to any player to win an Africa Cup. We were unlucky at the last one and also in Gabon. The players are very motivated to win the tournament. We all want to win it.”

Mohamed Salah is heading back to Liverpool for treatment for a torn hamstring and hopes to be back in time to help Egypt win AFCON.

“It's mainly exposure for the man. He wanted to say something. But what I find terrible is that it was filmed and published on social media. By who? The minister himself? I'm trying to find that out. It is unacceptable that something like that comes out. It feeds all sorts of nonsense and we don't need that disturbing us here.”

South Africa coach Hugo Broos on the social media storm following Minister of Sports Zizi Kodwa “coaching” the team in the change room after their Africa Cup of Nations finals loss to Mali

“It's a game of football and a split second that changes the decision. I think those short passes make a lot of difference and I think you defeated them in the first half. But of course, you have to regroup. It's a game of football. I just want to encourage you. I think you inspired a lot of South Africans. If you look at the games that have been played in this tournament, there are no underdogs.” What Kodwa said to the Bafana players.

“As well as the three-step process [match stopped, match re-stopped, match abandoned], we have to implement an automatic forfeit for the team whose fans have com- mitted racism and caused the match to be abandoned, as well as worldwide stadium bans and criminal charges for racists.” FIFA president Gianni Infantino has called for the implementation of an automatic for- feit of games for teams whose fans commit racist abuse after weekend incidents in England and Italy.

“I manifest things like this. Before I left my house, I thought, ‘we're winning today and I'm scoring'. I'm grateful to be back. I missed it so much. I'm back.”

Brentford's Ivan Toney after marking his return from an eight-month ban with a goal in Brentford's thrilling 3-2 win over Nottingham Forest at the weekend.