Mohamed Salah has returned to England for treatment on a hamstring tear to give him the best possible chance to be available for the Africa Cup of Nations final, should Egypt make it, Liverpool assistant manager Pep Lijnders said on Tuesday.

Salah was forced to watch from the stands as Egypt secured their passage to the last 16 of the competition in dramatic fashion on Monday after a 2-2 draw with Cape Verde.

The two-time African player of the year hobbled off during his country’s second game of the tournament against Ghana, but the Egyptian federation have maintained hope he could return should the Pharaohs progress far in the tournament.

However, Lijnders suggested that only the final on February 11 is realistic, even if Salah’s recovery goes as planned.

Read full story on sport.timesofmalta.com

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.