Egypt FA Statement Confirms Mohamed Salah Will Miss World Cup Qualifiers

On Monday, the Egyptian FA released a statement explaining that Liverpool will not release Mohamed Salah to his country for the upcoming World Cup qualifiers. The reason for this is that Egypt is currently on the European Club Association’s red travel list for Covid-19 precautions. Egypt are set to play matches in Cairo, Egypt and Franceville, Gabon as they look to qualify for next summer’s World Cup.

Initially, the Egyptian FA put out a statement saying that they were appealing to FIFA to allow an exemption for international players travelling, so that they would not have to self-isolate for 10 days upon returning. However, with this recent statement, it appears that Liverpool have won this battle.

The statement released by the FA reads as follows:

“The Egyptian Football Association had received a letter from Liverpool FC apologising for the inability of its player, Mohamed Salah, to join the national team in its next camp, which includes Angola in Cairo and Gabon in Franceville during the first and second rounds of the African continent’s qualifiers for the World Cup.

“The English club’s letter referred to the precautionary measures applied in England to confront the outbreak of the coronavirus in the world, which puts returnees from some countries in compulsory health isolation for a period of 10 days upon their return to England.

“In the letter, the English club also expressed its hope that the Egyptian federation would understand that it was forced to do so, in the face of the player being subjected to a quarantine for this period and being affected by this physically.

“It is reported that Liverpool FC took the same position with a number of its foreign players.”

The other foreign players alluded to in the statement are the Brazilian trio of Alisson Becker, Fabinho and Roberto Firmino. Brazil is also on the ECA’s red travel list. No official confirmation has come out about their participation or lack thereof, but with the players dispersing next week, it shouldn’t be long.