Mo Salah Selected in Egypt’s Preliminary Squad for the Olympics

Mohamed Salah has been selected as one of the two senior players in Egypt’s squad for the Summer Olympics tournament in Tokyo. This should inconvenience Jürgen Klopp a great deal, considering that the Egyptian’s goal scoring (17 goals so far) has been one of the few bright spots in a season wrecked by injury. The Olympics is typically contested by national under-23 sides. However, each team can call up three players over the age limit as senior party members.

The tournament is slated to run from July 23 to August 8, with 2021-22 Premier League supposed to start on August 7. Salah would likely miss both pre-season and the opening weeks of the new campaign with Liverpool FC if he reports to play in the tournament.

Egypt’s U-23 coach Shawky Gharib had this to say about Salah’s call-up (Ahram Online):

Egypt U-23 team’s preliminary squad will be led by Mohamed Salah and Mohamed El-Shennawy alongside another goalkeeper. Salah is currently one of the most important players in the world and it’s normal to call him for Egypt’s Olympic squad.

We will start the official talks with Liverpool after the international break next March.

It’s yet another tricky wrinkle Klopp will have to deal with, unless of course we just sign Mbappe and call it a day. We’ll see.