Salah: that really takes the cake

– Egypt’s super striker Mohamed Salah needed help from three team-mates pulling on a jersey over his injured shoulder on Saturday, according to AFP reporters at the team’s training camp.

The Pharaohs’ best hope in making the last-16 for the first time since 1990 has been having an eventful time at his team’s base camp in the Chechen capital Grozny.

Salah watched from the bench as Egypt lost to an 89th-minute header by defender Jose Gimenez in a 1-0 loss to Uruguay on Friday.

Grozny

He returned to training on Saturday but was spotted employing the help of three team-mates pulling on his top.

The team doctor nevertheless pronounced the Liverpool star “100 percent ready” to play in Egypt’s second match against host nation Russia in Saint Petersburg tomorrow.

But Salah at least can take comfort in a massive 100kg birthday cake he was confronted with on his 26th birthday on Friday.

A video released by the Chechen authorities that has gone viral showed Salah leisurely walking into his hotel lobby suspecting nothing and listening to music on his headphones.

He began smiling, suspecting something was not right when a hotel employee shot confetti in his face.

Then Salah spotted the giant cake sitting on a lacquered table, topped with a golden boot.

A Chechen man in a smart suit immediately ran up to Salah with a microphone in apparent expectation of a thank you speech.

Salah did not oblige while smiling shyly and profusely. –