Mohamed Salah may miss the start of next season because of representing Egypt at the 2021 Olympics, according to the Liverpool Echo.
It has been confirmed that the 28-year-old will be included in his country’s preliminary squad for the Tokyo-based games this summer, which take place from July 23rd to August 8th.
That would mean Salah misses a huge chunk of Liverpool’s pre-season, and because of that, the beginning of the 2021/22 campaign.
Egypt are yet to talk to the Reds about it, however, which could be set to cause a ‘club vs country row’, and Jurgen Klopp is believed to be ‘reluctant’ to let his player go.
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Liverpool will be looking to bounce back from their disappointing Premier League title defence next season, but not having Salah for the start of it would be a major blow.
Even though the Egyptian superstar hasn’t always been at his best this season, he still has 24 goals to his name and his the top scorer in the league currently.
Salah may have great pride in playing for his country at an Olympic games, so it could be hard to prevent him heading to Tokyo.
From a selfish Liverpool perspective, though, the hope is that he is available for all of pre-season and the start of the campaign.
