“I want to take this opportunity to clarify things,” Egypt head coach Rui Vitoria said after the Capo Verde game (2-2) at AFCON, as quoted by DaveOCKOP.
“Mohamed Salah has an injury, which we learned before this game was a longer-term injury than we first thought, so we have had to prolong the amount of time before he can play again.
“Before the game we did not want to say anything. Meanwhile, everything was in the control of our excellent medical team.
“Given we were going to have to travel, given the temperatures, given that we were going to be going to a different city, maybe it makes sense that Salah should have a place he can go to recover as quickly as possible.
“We didn’t want to alarm anyone. I didn’t think it was right for Liverpool, via any intermediary, to speak about this, because we had a tremendously important game today.
“Salah has always been with us. Now this game is over we will find the best solution for the treatment of the player. These are the facts. This is the situation.”
The 31-year-old picked up a injury in Egypt's game against Ghana last Thursday. On Saturday, Jurgen Klopp said that the forward would return to Liverpool to work on his recovery.
Mo going back to Liverpool caused a stir in the Egyptian press, with the national team's record appearance holder Ahmed Hassan saying that Salah should have stayed 'even if he had one leg to walk on'.
On Monday afternoon, the forward's agent said that the injury is more serious than first thought and it was confirmed by the club late in the evening.
Salah was in attendance at the Capo Verde game. An exciting 2-2 draw sees the Pharaohs advance to the knockout stages of the tournament.
