Evening Standard
·18 January 2024
Evening Standard
·18 January 2024
Egypt coach Rui Vitoria believes Mohamed Salah's injury is "not dangerous" after the Liverpool forward was forced off in his country's Africa Cup of Nations match with Ghana.
It was a significant blow for Egypt late in the first-half, as Salah went down off the ball and immediately signalled that he could not continue.
The forward handed over the captain's armband to Ahmed Hegazi and trudged off the pitch, sitting on the floor in front of the dugout for the final minutes of the half.
He watched on as Mohammed Kudus put Ghana in front before the break, but Omar Marmoush equalised for Egypt and Mostafa Mohamed did likewise five minutes later, after Kudus had struck again to restore the Black Stars' lead.
It leaves Egypt on two points heading into their final Group B match against Cape Verde, who will book their place in the AFCON knockout stages with a game to spare if they beat Mozambique on Friday. Egypt may well need to win against Cape Verde to ensure they do not make an early exit from the tournament.
Salah walked through the mixed zone after the match without stopping to speak to journalists, but his boss gave a relatively positive update when asked for an update on his star man.
"I hope it's not a big problem," Vitoria said in his post-match press conference.
"But it was a problem in the first-half, because we lost one time to make a substitution. In the second-half we only had two moments to make substitutions."