Liverpool forward Mohamed Salah could miss the first fortnight of next season due to the Tokyo Olympics, according to the Daily Mail.
The newspaper claims that the 27-year-old, on a reported £200,000-per-week at the club [Source: Spotrac], could miss the beginning of the 2020/21 campaign.
That’s because his country Egypt booked their qualification for the historic sporting event, where they can select three players over the age of 23 for the tournament.
And it’s likely that the former Roma man would be an automatic selection for his nation.
OPINION
You can’t really picture Salah not being selected for the Olympics after Egypt qualified for this tournament. The fact that the event is so rare – every four years – and that Egypt’s qualification is even rarer, means that the Liverpool star is hugely unlikely to reject his nation’s anticipated call to arms. He’s always been extremely committed to the Egyptian cause, so it very much looks like Jurgen Klopp will have to deal without his star attacker for the first game or so of next season. That would be a big blow for the Reds, of course, because Salah is an absolute talisman for them. The statistics from this campaign demonstrate as much. As per WhoScored.com, he has scored nine goals and bagged five assists so far this term, while he’s averaging 3.7 shots, 1.5 key passes and two successful dribbles per game. That’s going to be hard to replicate for Divock Origi or whoever else fills in.
