Egypt FA confirm that Liverpool will not release Mohamed Salah for international duty

08/23/2021

The Egypt FA have confirmed reports, via a statement, that Liverpool have refused to release Mohamed Salah for the 2022 World Cup qualifiers that take place in September. Reports had earlier indicated that the forward would be forced to sit out because of England’s COVID-19 protocols.

With strict COVID-19 protocols in place, it has seen many clubs concerned at releasing players for international duty in September. That is especially the case with Premier League clubs as more than a handful of stars are set to play in countries that are on England’s red list. That saw reports indicated that Liverpool had refused to release Mohamed Salah for international duty in light of the same.

It saw the Egyptian Football Association (FA) confirm the news in a lengthy statement released across their social media pages and they confirmed that Salah won’t be a part. This is not the first time that Liverpool have done this as they also prevented Salah from being a part of Egypt's squad for the 2021 Tokyo Olympics as they wanted a full fit squad

"The Egyptian Football Association continues its continuous contacts regarding the task of international players joining their national teams to participate in the World Cup qualifiers, which requires exempting them from travel restrictions imposed on them in the countries in which they play due to the coronavirus pandemic," reads the statement.

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

The statement also revealed that the Reds sent the FA a letter to voice their concerns which were primarily around the COVID-19 protocols in England and it also added that the Anfield side taking the same stance with their other players as well.

"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 ten days upon their return to England.

"In this 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, as well as the uncertainty of the conditions determined by English authorities.

"It is noteworthy that Liverpool FC took the same position with a number of its foreign players," the statement added.