Mohamed Salah's day off! Liverpool receive massive boost as Egypt drop star forward for final international game of 2025 due to fitness reasons

Oston Urunov bagged a first half brace as Uzbekistan secured a surprise 2-0 win over Egypt last week. The Pharaohs had been expected to progress to the final of the Al Ain International Cup but saw their tournament hopes go up in smoke.

As such, Egypt will now play their third-place playoff against Cape Verde, who lost to Iran in their own semi-final clash, on Monday as they look to get back to winning ways ahead of the Africa Cup of Nations next month. While some Liverpool fans had feared Salah, who played the full 90 minutes in the defeat, would suffer from burnout, the 33-year-old will now return to Merseyside sooner than expected as the Reds look to get their season back on track having been granted a rest by the Egypt national team.

"The Egyptian national football team, led by Hossam Hassan, held its training session in Al Ain in preparation for a friendly match against Cape Verde at 6pm on Monday - Cairo time - at Hazza Bin Zayed Stadium in Al Ain, UAE," a statement from the Egyptian FA read.

"The absence of the duo Ahmed Sayed Zizo and Hamdi Fathi from the Cape Verde match due to injury was also confirmed, and Salah Mohsen underwent recovery training, in addition to giving Mohamed Salah a rest, and his non-participation in the Cape Verde friendly.

"Tarek Abou El-Enein and Mohamed Abou Hussein, members of the board of directors of the Football Association, attended the training session of the Egyptian national team."

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Salah will therefore have additional time to prepare for Liverpool's welcome of Nottingham Forest next weekend. The Reds are looking to get back to winning ways at the expense of the Tricky Trees having fallen to a 3-0 loss at rivals Manchester City on last Sunday.

Goals from Erling Haaland, Nico Gonzalez and Jeremy Doku confirmed a routine win for City over Liverpool, who were unfortunate to see a Virgil van Dijk header ruled out for offside when the Reds were just one goal down.

Salah struggled at the Etihad Stadium, and has failed to match expectations from last season. The experienced forward scored 29 goals and laid on an additional 18 assists for Liverpool as Arne Slot masterminded a Premier League title triumph in his debut season at the Anfield helm.

However, the Egypt international has scored just four goals and provided two assists in the Premier League this season, while the Reds are now eight points off league leaders Arsenal despite a spending splurge over the summer as they signed Alexander Isak, Hugo Ekitike and Florian Wirtz.

Liverpool also brought in Milos Kerkez and Jeremie Frimpong from Bournemouth and Bayer Leverkusen, respectively, with the latter joining as a replacement for Trent Alexander-Arnold. The England international departed for Real Madrid and was widely criticised by fans for the manner of his exit.

While Liverpool have been boosted by Salah's early return to Anfield this month, the Reds will be powerless to keep the forward on Merseyside for AFCON next month. The tournament kicks off on December 21 in Morocco and will run through to January 18.

Egypt are one of the pre-tournament favourites and have been drawn alongside South Africa, Angola and Zimbabwe in Group B. Should Egypt make it to the final in mid-January, then Salah could miss up to eight matches, including testing trips to north London pair Tottenham and Arsenal.