Mohamed Salah has opened up on his Champions League final heartache and says he is using it as fuel to drive him on in this season's competition.
After a spellbinding debut campaign at Anfield, 44-goal Salah left the pitch in Kiev in tears after being wrestled to the floor by Sergio Ramos in the final of Europe's premier competition 12 months ago.
A shoulder injury put paid to Salah's hopes of starring in the biggest club game in football and his subsequent attempts to fast-track his rehabilitation saw him arrive at the World Cup for Egypt some way short of full fitness.
A distraught Salah was left alone in tears inside the changing rooms of the NSC Olimpiyskiy as his team-mates battled to a 3-1 defeat to Real Madrid on May 26 last year.
In an interview with Bleacher Report ahead of Wednesday night's Champions League semi-final first leg with Barcelona, Salah detailed his emotions after being forced off.
However, the man affectionately known as the 'Egyptian King' by the Kop insists he has no interest in reheating a rivalry with Spain centre-back Ramos .
"The final of the Champions League [was] a big dream for yourself, for the city, for the fans and for everyone," he said. "We wanted to win the Champions League.
"And that time, mentally, it was very, very bad. Especially when I got substituted, I went to the dressing room and was just crying because I felt like the Champions League was over and the World Cup was over, so it was very tough for me at that moment.
"I think it still hurts until now, because you didn't win it. You were close to winning the Champions League, and you didn't win it.
"I went to play in the World Cup, it's a dream, but I'm not fit. I'd go to my room, I was almost crying every day.
"Before the first game, when I didn't play, I was in the bus and I was crying on the bus. I went to the bathroom and I was crying in the bathroom.
"Because I wanted to start the game! I want to play! But I know I am not fit at all to play.
"In one moment that disappeared. It was so difficult, so difficult.
"I was in the dressing room, just crying for the whole game. I was crying every day until I played in the World Cup.
"I don’t want to talk about Ramos, that book is closed. I just want it so so much this season."
Salah has a chance to avenge the defeat to Los Blancos when the final is held in Madrid on June 1, but the Reds must get past a formidable Barcelona side before the European showpiece against either Ajax or Tottenham.
He added: "The next game against Barcelona. It is something very, very huge to play against Barcelona, semi-final, wow!
"We are the only team now in the semi-final from last season, so that's something very big for us. We've shown how much was are improving."
