Salah ruled out of two AFCON 2023 games

Liverpool and Egypt star Mohamed Salah has been ruled out of the next two Africa Cup of Nations games with a hamstring injury, his country’s football association said Friday.

“Tests on Mohamed Salah, the captain of the Egypt national team, proved that he suffered a hamstring injury and will miss the next two matches of the team at the AFCON,” the Egyptian FA said in a statement.

Salah, 31, came off late in the first half of the Pharaohs’ 2-2 draw with Ghana on Thursday.

He will therefore sit out Monday’s final group game against Cape Verde and any last-16 tie that would follow that.

After drawing their opening two games at the tournament, the record seven-time African champions need to beat already-qualified Cape Verde to be guaranteed of advancing in second place in Group B.

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That would tee up a last-16 tie in San-Pedro on January 28, while they could also potentially qualify as one of the best third-placed teams.

He will therefore only feature again at the competition if Egypt make it to a quarter-final on February 2 or 3.

Egypt needed an injury-time penalty from Salah to salvage a 2-2 draw with Mozambique in their opening game at the tournament.

On Thursday they had to come from behind twice to draw with Ghana, Omar Marmoush and Mostafa Mohamed scoring their goals, with the result leaving them on two points from two matches.

The last of Egypt’s seven titles at the Cup of Nations came in 2010, a year before Salah made his international debut.