Mohamed Salah has been ruled out of Liverpool’s Premier League clash with Brighton this weekend, having picked up an injury in the 4-0 win over Galatasaray.
Salah was excellent in the Champions League in midweek, scoring and assisting, and being praised by Arne Slot after the game:
“It says a lot about him that after missing a penalty just before half-time [to score that goal]. That can sometimes be hard for an individual or for a team, so compliment to the team for how we came out in the second half because we’ve had a lot of setbacks this season, we’ve had a lot of first or second halves where we’ve created chance after chance after chance without doing justice to how we’ve performed, so not scoring.
“Then, Mo and the team came out in the second half the way they did. He assisted first to Hugo, a great assist, and then scored a trademark goal, which he scored many of in this stadium and for this club, coming inside and finding the top corner. That tells you about the mental strength of him.”
Now, speaking in his press conference ahead of Saturday’s trip to Brighton, Slot confirmed that Salah won’t be involved in proceedings, having not recovered in time:
“He is not available for tomorrow. Good thing for Liverpool is we go to international break, bad news for Egypt, he can’t go there.
“We hope with what Mo has shown in the past he can recover faster than other players. He takes such good care of his body, he can be back earlier than others as history has shown. Only two weeks until we go again.”
How will Liverpool line-up vs. Brighton?
With the international break coming after the weekend action, there is no reason for Slot not to go as strong as possible at the Amex Stadium.
In fact, he will surely name a very similar team to the one that cruised to victory over Galatasaray on Wednesday night, with Jeremie Frimpong and Milos Kerkez continuing at full-back.
Curtis Jones has fallen out of favour, so it is hard to see him ousting Ryan Gravenberch, Alexis Mac Allister or Dominik Szoboszlai, with Florian Wirtz continuing on the left wing ahead of Cody Gakpo.
Rio Ngumoha could then start on the right wing in Salah’s absence, or Gakpo may be preferred.
This is another massive game in Liverpool’s season, with victory suggesting a big corner has been turned, but another poor result and performance heaping fresh pressure on Slot and his players.