Salah injury saga hampers Egypt’s bid for Africa Cup of Nations glory
▶ Relations between Pharaohs and striker appear to be at breaking point over return to Liverpool for treatment
If Egypt are to win the 34th Africa Cup of Nations, they will do so having exhausted Plan A, most of their Plan B, carried to an unlikely triumph on the wild, unpredictable winds that have swept the tournament.
The Pharaohs, installed among the initial favourites but yet to win a fixture on their way into the knockout phase, said farewell to captain and lodestar Mohamed Salah, who has flown to Liverpool, his club, for treatment on a hamstring injury of undetermined gravity.
He departed amid scathing criticism from former colleagues and the Egyptian public. There is a strong possibility that unless his teammates progress through their last-16 match next Tuesday and, beyond that, past a quarter-final, Salah will not return.
There are further setbacks. Goalkeeper Mohamed El Shenawy, perhaps their next most totemic player, learnt yesterday that the shoulder injury he sustained just before the final whistle of the 2-2 draw with Cape Verde that left Egypt hanging on to second place in their group, is a dislocation, ruling him out of the rest of Afcon.
Manager Rui Vitoria is also urgently diagnosing whatever has afflicted the team’s defensive shape and very identity. In three Afcon matches so far, Egypt have conceded six goals.
“We have defensive problems,” acknowledged Vitoria. “We need to improve our performance in all aspects.”
In all three of their 2-2 draws in Abidjan, Egypt have let leads slip, twice against Ghana. If there is far less embarrassment in scraping a point from the likes of Mozambique, as Egypt did only through Salah’s stoppage-time penalty, or Cape Verde, who finished top of Group B, than there might have been at the outset, this is still a diminished, uncertain Egyptian campaign.
Above all, the Salah absence has dominated, a saga thoroughly mismanaged. When he pulled up with discomfort in his thigh shortly before halftime of the match against Ghana, it looked ominous.
But he walked off the pitch with reasonable mobility. The
initial prognosis was for a twomatch recuperation with the captain treated on site, a leader absent off the field until a potential quarter-final but present in the camp, there to lead.
Jurgen Klopp, Salah’s manager at Liverpool, then made it known the player, the club and the Egyptian Football Association had agreed to Salah undergoing his recovery in Liverpool.
The potential comeback date had been extended to a possible Afcon semi-final on February
7, at the soonest, with Salah’s representative stating that the injury was more serious that initially thought. The backlash has been severe.
“I didn’t think it was right for Liverpool, via any intermediary, to speak about this,” said Rui Vitoria.
Former Egypt captains Ahmed Hassan and Wael Gomaa slammed a failure of leadership from Egypt’s decision-makers and from the captain.
“Salah made a mistake, he takes part of the responsibility,” said Gomaa. “What’s happened is an insult to the national team, and its status in Africa – big mistakes from start to finish from everybody.”
“He is the captain, he should stay with the team no matter what,” said Ahmed Hassan, whose 184 international appearances make him Egypt’s
most capped player. “He could have had someone from Liverpool’s medical staff come to be with him at the competition.”
A fit Salah would have reached a century of caps had he steered Egypt to a third final of the four Afcons he has taken part in. But he leaves a significant mark.
Salah assisted Mostafa Mohamed’s second-minute goal against Mozambique and converted the injury-time penalty, at 2-1 down, to grasp what has turned out to be a crucial point.
The bid to join upstarts Cape Verde in the next round was nerve-jangling, with Ghana, who finished third in Group B on two points, collapsing from 2-0 up against Mozambique to draw 2-2 on Monday.
In the next phase, Egypt will meet the runners-up of Group F, whose final standings will be clear today, with Morocco,
DR Congo, Zambia and Tanzania all potentially ending up in second place, and staying in San Pedro. Rui Vitoria welcomes Egypt’s change of scene, although even the 200-mile journey to San Pedro was being framed around the Salah saga.
“Because we have to travel to a different city, because of the temperatures, perhaps it makes more sense Salah should have a place for recovery he can go to straight away.”
Yet nobody, ahead of yesterday’s gloomy diagnosis of El Shenawy’s shoulder problem, had suggested the goalkeeper should be treated abroad if he had a chance of recovery within the next three weeks.
The suspicion a different, unique standard has been applied to Salah’s situation and priority given to the interests of title-chasing Liverpool persists.
Former captains Ahmed Hassan and Wael Gomaa slammed the failure of leadership from the FA and from the captain