Mohamed Salah remains an injury doubt for Liverpool ahead of Sunday’s League Cup final clash with Chelsea.
Mohamed Salah and Liverpool face an anxious few days to see if the Egyptian will be fit for the League Cup final.
The forward suffered a hamstring injury during the Africa Cup of Nations, and made a premature return to Merseyside to undergo treatment after the group-stages last month. Following four weeks on the sidelines, he returned to team training last week before registering a goal and an assist off the bench against Brentford when making his playing return.
Yet he was absent entirely from the Reds matchday squad as they hosted Luton Town on Wednesday after suffering with fatigue in the muscle.
“They couldn’t have played tonight,” Jurgen Klopp said of the forward and Darwin Nunez ahead of facing the Hatters. “From here we will see who will be back for Sunday, but that is not important at the moment.”
.Come the final whistle, the German would admit he did not know if Salah would be fit in time to play in the Carabao Cup final against Chelsea on Sunday, with assistant manager Pep Lijnders admitting Liverpool will have to make a last-minute decision on the Egyptian at his pre-match press conference ahead of the final.
“No (no new updates), I don’t even know if these boys can play again to be honest,” Lijnders conceded. “The situation is not great, absolutely not.
“Obviously, for us, a lot of super important games coming up and we don’t know (when they’ll be back). We go day by day.
“I cannot say anything about it and I don’t know. But after Brentford I had no clue that the situation would be like it is now. Let’s see.”
Lijnders said: “Dom (Szoboszlai), Darwin and Mo, we have to really see. We have two more days. Today’s session and tomorrow’s session. Last-minute we will check if they can be there. It would be great.”
Liverpool will have to tread carefully with Salah regardless of whether he is declared available to face his former club on Sunday or not. Yet the fact that he is heading into the final with such a question mark hanging over his head perhaps reiterates the forward’s overlooked track-record when it comes to showpiece finals.
While he has won every major honour on offer to him during his time with the Reds, Salah could be forgiven if he was underwhelmed by his own contributions to such occasions. After all, while he might boast numerous winners’ medals, he has often not had the impact that he would have desired.
He has admittedly won six of his 10 finals with Liverpool, yet he has only scored two penalties and registered one assist across such games. Scoring from the penalty spot in the 2019 Champions League final over Tottenham Hotspur, his other two final goal contributions came in the 2022 Community Shield win over Man City.
Five of those finals have been decided by penalties, with Salah admittedly scoring in four of those shootouts, while a sixth has been decided in extra-time. He boasts no goals or assists from these matches, with the Reds scoring just five goals in these tightly-fought encounters.
And with Liverpool facing Chelsea in three finals since 2019, each match has gone to penalties with a 2-2 draw in the European Super Cup followed by two 0-0 stalemates in both domestic cup finals in 2021/22.
Meanwhile, Salah was forced off injured after 30 minutes in the 2018 Champions League final loss to Real Madrid, and 33 minutes in the 2022 FA Cup final win over Chelsea. His current injury scare as the Reds prepare to take on the Londoners at Wembley once more will also potentially limit his contributions. For a player who rarely suffers injury, it is curious that this is the third time a rare setback as accompanied a final.
His record is even more frustrating at an international level, losing two Africa Cup of Nations finals in 2017 and 2022. He would claim an assist in a 2-1 defeat to Cameroon in the former, before Egypt had already suffered defeat in a penalty shootout defeat to Senegal before he could even step up.
Meanwhile, such frustrations actually pre-date Salah’s move to Liverpool. He was forced to sit out the 2013 Swiss Cup final, having been an ever-present up until that point, as FC Basel lost on penalties to Grasshoppers.
While Basel would reach the final again in 2014, where they lost to Zurich 2-0, Salah had at this point departed to Chelsea in January. And fast forward a year to the Londoners beating Tottenham in the League Cup final in March 2015, Salah had already left for Fiorentina on loan the month before.
Winning every major honour with Liverpool will at least be some consolation to the 31-year-old, even if a niggling thought continues to eat away at the back of his perhaps unfulfilled mind. A serial winner with the highest of expectations and standards, should one of the greatest players of his generation not have made more of an impact when silverware is up for grabs?
The two Champions League and Africa Cup of Nations final defeats will inevitably hurt him most, with it still grating how the best season of his career in 2017/18 was ended by injury against Real Madrid in Kiev.
Currently boasting a 50% win percentage from the 12 finals for club and country he has played in, he will look to improve that record against Chelsea on Sunday. Yet the hamstring injury he is carrying risks undermining him on the biggest stage once more.
The Reds continue to compete on all four fronts, at least, with further silverware up for grabs beyond the League Cup final. Salah has the platform to set his own personal record straight.
He will go down as one of Liverpool’s greatest ever players, of course. The Egyptian King who won all there was to win at Anfield. But for Salah, that still isn’t quite enough.
