When the Egyptian Football Association (EFA) released the press release on Sunday evening confirming that Mohamed Salah would return to Liverpool to undergo his rehabilitation following a hamstring injury, Mohamed Abou El-Wafa stated in a television program in Cairo that it There was no reason to worry. He had concerns about the player's condition and was unaware of any plan to get him out of Ivory Coast. He stressed his responsibility to stay in the country as he is the captain of the team.
El-Wafa was reacting to Jurgen Klopp's announcement that Salah's treatment would likely be handled by Liverpool staff rather than Egypt's. During the broadcast, the EFA confirmed this development and El-Wafa, a board member of the organization, somewhat embarrassingly tried to change direction and take responsibility for the decisions of officials on the other side of the continent. “I'm sure they did the right thing,” he said.
The next morning, the EFA station in Abidjan admitted to The Athletic that at least from there the plan had been to announce Salah's departure from the competition after the country's crucial Group B game against Cape Verde.
However, the organization did not respond to questions about whether this had been agreed with Liverpool, nor did they respond to questions about claims from Egypt that the EFA was angry with Klopp, and therefore Liverpool, for making this a public issue before they were ready. Meanwhile, Liverpool declined the opportunity to answer questions on the matter.
As each institution tried to protect Salah as the hours passed, the opposite happened. Given this uncertainty, the pressure on Salah increased, arguably putting him in a situation with his country in which it now seems impossible for him to win.
If Klopp had remained silent and Egypt had lost to Cape Verde, then Salah could have returned to Liverpool without anyone knowing what would happen.
Egypt conceded a late equalizer against Cape Verde but still finished second in Group B (Franck Fife/AFP via Getty Images)
Instead, a possible Egyptian fall on Cape Verde would have resulted in Salah being accused of creating a distraction. Now, advancing through the laps will serve as proof to his detractors, who hardly need any more fuel, that the team is better off without him, whether true or not.
His coach Rui Vitoria gave some explanations about the sequence of events after Egypt made it to the round of 16 in dramatic circumstances on Monday evening. After Egypt confirmed a late goal after a long VAR delay, they conceded the equalizer. It was only at the final whistle that the players realized that Ghana had conceded two late goals in the game against Mozambique in Ebimpe, sending Egypt into second place in Group B.
Salah watched the whole thing from the stands before flying back to Liverpool. Vitoria described his injury as “very complex” and seemed to suggest that Egypt had known about it for some time, but he wanted to wait until after this game to speak about Salah “calmly.” According to Vitoria, nameless “intermediaries” from Liverpool prevented this.
The greatest clarity about Salah's condition had only been achieved by his agent 90 minutes before kick-off.
Amid heavy criticism of Salah in Egypt, Ramy Abbas confirmed on social media that the injury was “more serious than initially thought.”
According to Abbas, Salah will be out for the next 21 to 28 days. Given that the AFCON final was still 21 days away from the moment he entered the conversation, Abbas concluded that returning to Liverpool would give his client the “best chance” of future participation in the tournament – but given the time frame, this seems optimistic.
This suggests that Salah has suffered a grade one or two tear which, as The Athletic reported on Friday, would keep him out of action for at least three weeks.
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A few hours before Klopp announced his striker was likely to return to Merseyside, Salah was the focus of a press conference at the Palais de Culture in Abidjan and it did not appear he was preparing to leave.
The subsequent press release from Egypt suggested that the test results announced later that afternoon had led to a change in strategy. Instead of missing just two games as suggested on Friday, Salah was now fighting to be fit for the semi-finals should Egypt get there. Klopp, meanwhile, has hinted that Salah could return to Ivory Coast if Egypt progress, but instead pointed to a possible appearance in the final.
The English translation of the original Egyptian statement on Salah's well-being had initially caused more confusion, as an X-ray had diagnosed damage to the “posterior” thigh. X-rays are usually taken to assess bone health. To get a clearer picture of a muscle injury, Salah would have needed an MRI scan.
While Vitoria praised the “great experience” of its doctors, Liverpool suspected that the original message had been lost in translation. The Egyptian Football Association did not respond when The Athletic asked for clarification on the player's treatment.
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But late on Monday evening, national team doctor Mohamed Abou El-Ela told Egyptian television channel ON Time Sports that while talks with Liverpool were ongoing, the Premier League club had not stuck to an agreed timetable. “We wanted this (the statement) to be published after the game and we agreed that with Liverpool.”
He also revealed how much discussion there had been between the Egyptian staff and Liverpool about Salah's injury: “Communication (with Liverpool) reached a point where we spoke five times a day, for half an hour each.”
The Athletic has contacted Liverpool for comment.
Salah watches Egypt's game on Monday evening (Franck Fife/AFP via Getty Images)
It would be understandable if Liverpool were to ask serious questions about why a player who rarely suffers injuries, particularly muscle injuries, gave up after such a short time in someone else's care.
In the past, Liverpool have sent medical professionals to look after their players during the AFCON. This happened two years ago in Cameroon when the club entered three players in the tournament. This also happened in 2017 when Sadio Mane was the only Liverpool player in Gabon.
On this occasion the work was outsourced to Dave Galley, a former club physiotherapist. Various reports from the time suggest that Galley was able to monitor Mane's fitness on a daily basis and advise the Senegalese coaching staff whether the player required modified training schedules to include rest days and avoid excessive high-speed running sessions, which tend to cause muscle injuries those to the thigh muscles.
Mane returned from this competition in full health. Three days after Senegal were eliminated from the competition with a penalty shootout defeat to Cameroon, Mane was brought on as a second-half substitute as Liverpool drew with Chelsea.
Seven years later, Liverpool didn't send anyone to accompany Salah. The club has made no official statement about this, but Salah has had no problems in previous competitions with Egypt, so there must have been some confidence in looking after a player the club valued at more than £150m last summer.
(Franck Fife/AFP via Getty Images)
Egyptians believe the country's football association should have taken a more forceful approach towards Liverpool. The Moroccan Football Association, however, rejected FC Bayern Munich's request to bring Noussair Mazraoui back to Germany for further investigation. The organization's president, Fouzi Lekjaa, insisted that Bayern send their medical team to San-Pedro in western Ivory Coast.
There is a difference here, as Mazraoui traveled to Ivory Coast with an already diagnosed thigh injury and his club coach Thomas Tuchel recommended that he not play until the third group game at the earliest. These instructions were followed.
However, Morocco's stance on this situation has exposed weaknesses in Egypt's strategy as well as weak influence from the country's football authority.
One of the things Salah has to deal with is a silent, almost unspoken criticism due to the blurred lines between the EFA and an authoritarian regime. This means that, on the surface, it is much easier to blame a footballer living abroad than a domestic figure with influential friends.
While football associations such as those in Morocco and Senegal have managed to distance themselves from the impulses of government administrators, the relationship in Egypt remains confused. Critics believe the lack of solid football-related leadership within the EFA means the organization lacks the wisdom to positively influence the most famous player the country has ever produced.
Given that few Egyptian footballers are successful abroad, the EFA has also been accused of not investing in its relationships with the clubs of players who are successful.
After the 2011 Arab Spring, a former player named Hany Abu Rida aimed to become president of the EFA. An engineering businessman, he has held positions at CAF and FIFA. But his previous role as EFA vice-president made it difficult to ascend to the highest position due to his ties to the old pre-revolution regime.
This led to the appointment of Gamal Alam. Led by Abu Rida from the back of the stage, the arrangement worked for four years. With enough distance since the revolution, Abu Rida was able to take a step forward in 2016, but was forced to step down three years later when Egypt dropped out of an AFCON as hosts due to a player scandal involving Amr Warda, who was left out of the squad only to be quickly reinstated for sending inappropriate messages to women online.
For two years, the organization was without an elected board. During this time, the army and its intelligence services controlled everything in Egypt, but in 2022, Gamal Alam returned from the shadows.
“They elected him because he is weak and is very happy to be president,” said a source close to the organization, who spoke on condition of anonymity for security reasons. “And at the same time it looks like a normal development since he was the former president of the EFA.
“Welcome to Egypt.”
(Top photo: Franck Fife/AFP via Getty Images)