It’s looking less and less likely that Liverpool FC forward Mo Salah will play for his native country, Egypt at the 2020 Summer Olympics, which get started next month in Japan.
Liverpool have made it clear that they do not want their players participating in the summer olympiad, and given how injury ravaged they were this past season, it’s easy to understand why. That said, Salah had been pushing back against that edict and hoping to suit up for his country this summer anyway.
And there is an emphasis on “had been pushing back,” as it now seems the prolific winger will forgo the chance to participate in Tokyo. Instead, he will focus on joining up with the rest of his Liverpool mates in July, to prepare for the upcoming season.
Playing at the Olympics would require Liverpool’s players to be away from from the club well into August, when their league season will have already started.
According to ESPN, the chances of Mo Salah participating have “been impacted by the Africa Cup of Nations, which is due to be staged in Cameroon in January and February 2022 after being delayed for a year by the pandemic.”
Ibrahima Konate is the other Reds players who is/or was hoping to represent his country at the Olympics this summer. Mo Salah and Liverpool open their Premier League season August 14 against Norwich City, with a headliner fixture coming up in week three against one of the Egyptian’s former clubs, Chelsea.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank, partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “Transatlantic Passage: How the English Premier League Redefined Soccer in America” and “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” has regularly appeared in WGN, Sports Illustrated and the Chicago Tribune.