Mohamed Salah: Liverpool’s future is uncertain after the African Cup of Nations disappointment

There were no tears from Mohamed Salah when the final whistle blew in Tangier as Egypt fell in the semi-finals. Just a small smile, but it undoubtedly hides great disappointment.

Once again, his Egyptian side failed in the Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon), and once again, they fell to Senegal and Sadio Mane – Salah’s former Liverpool team-mate.

In the five matches that Salah participated in in Morocco, the 33-year-old scored four goals to lead his country to the semi-finals.

After their quarter-final win over Ivory Coast, Salah described the camp as the “best camp” he had ever had.

“We are all close, we love each other, we spend time together, our sense of humor is incredible, and we work hard on and off the field,” Salah said.

Salah is expected to return to Merseyside, where there is still uncertainty over his future, after Saturday’s third-place match against Nigeria in Casablanca.

The last match in which Salah participated with Liverpool was on November 26 in the Champions League against PSV Eindhoven, which coach Arne Slott’s team lost 4-1.

Since then, Liverpool have gone unbeaten in 11 matches (W6, D5), although performances have been questionable – with Slott admitting last week that he did not “entirely disagree” with suggestions that Reds’ football had been “dull and boring” during that period.

It has also been more than a month since Salah gave a dramatic interview in a mixed area at Leeds, where he accused Liverpool of “throwing him under the bus” after he sat on the bench for three successive matches, and claimed his relationship with Slot had broken down.

He was subsequently left out of Liverpool’s trip to Inter Milan but was not fined and returned to the team against Brighton a few days later, coming off the bench in the first half when Joe Gomez was injured.

Salah bagged an assist in the second half and received a warm reception from the Anfield fans, before staying to applaud all four sides of the ground after full time as they sang ‘The Egyptian King’ in his familiar song. This was his last appearance before joining his country’s national team.

Slott then insisted there was “no problem to solve”, with Curtis Jones also revealing that Salah had apologized to his team-mates for the fallout from his interview.

In his absence, Liverpool did not lose a single match, but they lost striker Alexander Isak to a lower leg injury until at least March, while defender Connor Bradley was ruled out for the rest of the season due to a knee injury.