It is too early to tell the extent of Mohamed Salah’s injury, Jurgen Klopp said on Friday, but the sight of the Liverpool talisman limping off the pitch with what his club manager called a hamstring injury rang alarm bells with the Merseyside team.
Liverpool was handed a scare when Salah, the Premier League’s joint top scorer this season with Manchester City’s Erling Haaland, limped off just before halftime in Egypt’s 2-2 draw with Ghana at the Africa Cup of Nations on Thursday.
“We don’t know anything about it,” Klopp told reporters on Friday. “I spoke with him last night and how it was. They are doing further assessments now, and then we will know more.
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“Salah suffered a pain in the hamstring which led to his change,” Egypt team doctor Mohamed Abou Elela said.
“He is undergoing medical examinations on Friday to see whether he can play against Cape Verde.”
“At that moment, he was shocked and couldn’t see why he was hit by something so intense. You have these hamstring injuries in a different way. He felt it, and we know how rarely Mo goes off or needs to go off, so it is definitely something, but I don’t have any more information right now.”
The 31-year-old is rarely injured and has missed just 10 league games in six-plus seasons.
Klopp said he was uncertain whether Liverpool’s medical staff would travel to the Ivory Coast to assess the extent of Salah’s injury.
“We will see. It depends on the diagnostics,” he said. “We will have ultrasound and MRI, and then we will know what it is, and we will see and make plans, but it’s too early (at the moment).”
Liverpool, which plays at Bournemouth on Sunday, tops the Premier League with 45 points after 20 games, two points clear of Manchester City. Aston Villa also has 43 points but has played one more game than the two sides above them.
Liverpool will likely be without Trent Alexander-Arnold again on Sunday, Klopp said, after the defender injured his knee in their FA Cup third-round win over Arsenal on Jan. 7.
“Obviously he can walk, on the catwalk,” Klopp said when asked about Alexander-Arnold being spotted at a fashion show this week in Milan.
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“The injuries are all positive, but not ready. (Alexander-Arnold, Andy Robertson and Dominik Szoboszlai) are all going in the right direction, but we will see when they can join first-team training. I don’t expect them for Bournemouth.
“I hope that nobody else will be out,” the manager added. “After Bournemouth and maybe for Fulham (League Cup semi-final on Wednesday). Trent is close, Robertson [is] close and Dom [is] close. So all going in the right direction, but for the weekend’s game, no.”
- With inputs from AFP
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