Mohamed Salah asked to be left out of Egypt squad

The 31-year-old left the Africa Cup of Nations early when he picked up a hamstring injury on January 18 against Ghana and, after appearing as a second-half substitute against Brentford in mid-February, was then sidelined again with what manager Jurgen Klopp said was muscle fatigue.

Salah returned to training this week and came off the bench in the 74th minute of their 5-1 thrashing of Sparta Prague in the Europa League on Thursday.

The Liverpool top-scorer has 19 goals this campaign and his return to fitness sparked a club-versus-country row, with Egypt previously rejecting Liverpool's request to exempt their captain from the tournament in Abu Dhabi, where they will face New Zealand and then either Tunisia or Croatia in the final.

Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp previously admitted: "Two games with Egypt is really not up to me.

"We want to be careful, we have to be careful, but we're in the middle of a super-intense period of the season and we need everyone."

However, Salah has now been omitted from the squad announced by the Egyptian Football Association on Sunday and so will be able to remain with Liverpool to work on his fitness for the title run-in.

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