Mo Salah left out of Egypt squad ahead of AFCON following Liverpool snub

LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - DECEMBER 13: Mohamed Salah of Liverpool sat on the bench during the Premier League match between Liverpool and Brighton & Hove Albion at Anfield on December 13, 2025 in Liverpool, England. (Photo by Robbie Jay Barratt - AMA/Getty Images).

Egypt captain Mo Salah was left out of his nation’s squad on arrival at camp ahead of the Africa Cup of Nations.

It has been a hectic few weeks for the 33-year-old, first being benched for three consecutive games by Liverpool boss Arne Slot, before the winger himself blew the story open by telling journalists he’d been “thrown under the bus”.

That led to the winger being omitted from the Reds’ travelling squad to face Inter Milan, before crunch talks between the head coach and Salah saw him readmitted to the first team.

Mo Salah left out of Egypt squad as AFCON start looms

Salah's omission follows selection drama with Liverpool (Image credit: Getty Images)

It wasn’t straight back to business as usual, however, as Slot again named Salah on the bench for the Brighton game, albeit he ended up playing over an hour of the game, and assisting Hugo Ekitike’s second goal.

That was the last game before Salah jetted off to link up with Egypt for AFCON, who had a friendly scheduled against Nigeria last night (Tuesday 16 December) before kicking off the tournament proper next week against Zimbabwe.

To compound Salah’s selection grumbles, however, he was also left out of the Egypt matchday squad by manager Hossam Hassan.

The Pharaohs went on to win the game 2-1, with goals from Mahmoud Saber and Mostafa Mohamed.

Thankfully, Salah is unlikely to need to find the nearest journalist to vent to this time around, as there is a more innocent explanation to his absence.

He and fellow Premier League star Omar Marmoush were both doubts heading into the game due to the fact that the pair only arrived in the country in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

Given this was just a friendly, it would have been a substantial ask to ask the players to forgo rest and acclimatisation to make the tea-time kick-off.

It remains to be seen where Salah goes with his Liverpool future when he arrives back in England (Image credit: Getty Images)

In FourFourTwo’s opinion, given the schedule, it is the correct choice to leave Salah and Marmoush out, the latter proving that the omission is nothing to do with the Liverpool man’s club controversy.

Salah is expected to captain Egypt in their upcoming Group B games against Zimbabwe, South Africa and Angola.

If the Pharaohs are to stand any chance of triumph at the tournament, Salah is sure to be a key part of it.

Salah is worth €30m, according to Transfermarkt.