On Tuesday the Egyptian footballer Mohamed Salah left his national team’s retreat in Ivory Coast, where the Africa Cup of Nations is being played, and returned to England in Liverpool, the city of the club team he usually plays for and one of the strongest and most prestigious in the world. Salah returned to recover from a hamstring injury. The news of his injury and return to England came at the height of a complicated period for the Egyptian national football team and for Salah himself, who is the team’s captain, the strongest player and therefore almost always the main object of criticism : Egypt made it through the group stage of the Africa Cup of Nations somewhat fortunately despite being one of the favourites, qualifying as second with three draws behind the much less popular Cape Verde. On Sunday evening they will play the round of 16, but without Salah.
A national case arose around Salah’s injury in Egypt: the player was strongly criticized and accused of caring more about Liverpool than Egypt, and many publicly argued that he should have remained in Ivory Coast with the team regardless of the extent of your injury. In general, a large part of public opinion is against him, theories are circulating according to which he is pretending to have a more serious injury in order to return to Liverpool and many have started to say that without him on the pitch the team plays even better, given that he doesn’t commit.
Outside Egypt, however, several observers have pointed out that it is the Egyptian football federation itself that has every interest in shifting pressure and criticism onto Salah, to hide an inability to maintain diplomatic relations with the players’ club teams, always delicate for the teams participating in the Africa Cup of Nations. Liverpool eventually managed to let Salah back, despite the federation having offered to treat him in Ivory Coast.
The player has made it known through his agent that he prefers to receive treatment in England, but that he will return to the Ivory Coast as soon as he recovers, hoping that at that point the team will still be competing in the tournament. It was initially estimated that the injury would keep him out for a maximum of two matches (Egypt still had to play their third group match), then his agent said it was more serious than expected and would require 21 to 28 recovery days. Based on these estimates Salah could return with the national team for a possible final of the Africa Cup of Nations, or at most for a semi-final.
Mohammed’s injury is more serious than first thought and he will be out for 21-28 days, and not 2 games.
His best chance at participating in the current AFCON is by undergoing intensive rehabilitation in the uk and rejoining the team as soon as he is fit.— Ramy Abbas Issa (@RamyCol) January 22, 2024
Salah concedes in Egypt always a lot of pressure: he is the best Egyptian football player ever and for many the best around of the entire African continent, as well as being the charismatic leader of his team. In 2017 he was decisive in Egypt’s qualification for the following year’s World Cup, the third in its history and the first in almost thirty years, but despite this he never managed to win the Africa Cup of Nations: before him the Egypt had won it seven times, becoming the most successful national team in the competition. With Salah, however, they reached the final twice, in 2017 and 2021, losing on both occasions.
At the same time Salah is also one of Liverpool’s strongest and most important players, who pay him a salary of around 10 million pounds net per year (almost 12 million euros) and who have every interest in having him followed by their medical staff in England, who are already used to working with him. It is also known that European teams have always had a certain intolerance in letting their players, especially the best, leave for the Africa Cup of Nations: because it is a tiring competition that is played during the central phase of the European championships, and deprives club teams of African players for several matches. Given the stress and prolonged commitment, it is not uncommon for someone to return from there very tired or injured.
So after Salah got hurt last January 18 in the second group match against Ghana, Liverpool and the Egyptian national team began to compete for him. On the one hand, the national team wanted to downplay the seriousness of his condition so that he could stay in retreat, and then try to get him to play as soon as he felt better; on the other hand, Liverpool wanted to treat the injury with the utmost caution and avoid choices that could have caused an even more serious injury. Communications between the parties for this mediation became very intense: “We spoke on the phone five times a day, each call lasted half an hour,” the Egyptian national team doctor, Mohamed Abou El-Ela, told an Egyptian TV station on Monday evening. .
Salah leaving the pitch after his injury (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)
In the end Liverpool won, resulting in criticism of the Egyptian Football Federation for not being able to retain Salah. In Egypt there is a lot of talk about how other African national teams have managed to win similar contests: the case of the Moroccan federation has been much cited, which managed to get Noussair Mazraoui, a Bayern Munich player, to leave for the Africa Cup of Nations, despite was injured.
However, Egyptian public opinion tends to be protective towards the national football federation, for political reasons: like many other state organisations, in fact, the federation is linked to the regime of President Abdel Fattah al Sisi, who for years has directed its appointments and management , putting people faithful to their line in the presidency. The current president, Gamal Alam, is considered particularly politically weak precisely because of his connivance with the regime, incapable of having influence on what is seen in Africa as the continent’s most important player, namely Salah.
An internal source within the African federation, who spoke to the sports magazine The Athletic on condition of anonymity, he said that Alam was chosen specifically “because he is weak and is very happy to be president”, and for this reason he is also easily controllable. According to the critics, who are mostly outside Egypt, it is easier for the federation and the regime to place the blame on a player who is already highly observed and under pressure, who also plays and lives for most of his time outside Egypt, rather than taking responsibility for the failures of the Egyptian national team.