As both Graeme Souness and Jose Mourinho have pointed out, there’s only one thing that can stop Liverpool from winning the Premier League title this season– a full blown injury crisis. And by that we mean, several, not just one or two, key players being out of commission for awhile due to injury.
Superstar winger Mohamed Salah has been playing through the pain of a chronic ankle problem, and it has something that Liverpool “has major concerns” about, according to an ESPN report. After scoring Liverpool’s second goal in the blockbuster 3-1 win over Manchester City yesterday he was hit by a strong challenge from Fernandinho.
Shoutout to Mohamed Salah for his goal and played on for 87 mins, despite on a receiving end of a strong tackle off Fernandinho. He’s been carrying this ankle injury since Leicester and not been 100% fit, deserves more respect for still putting his all for our club. ??? pic.twitter.com/gNNpsKTykT
— Samuel (@SamueILFC) November 10, 2019
He then went down, clutching his left ankle in obvious pain, but he received treatment and then stayed on, all the way until the 87′. Mo Salah was replaced by Joe Gomez for the few remaining minutes, but Divock Origi is the player who typically features in the lineup when Salah has been rested/not fit to play this season.
NBC Sports did an interesting article today on how Liverpool and the Egyptian national team will try to manage this chronic ankle problem going forward. Salah is a record setting and PFA Player of the Year winning footballer, and as such his presence will be required for LFC to get where they want to go this season.
Managing Salah (as well as everybody else) correctly will be key towards reaching those goals. You may have heard that LFC have a bit of a league title drought.
With Liverpool participating in so many competitions, and the well-chronicled and extensively analyzed fixture congestion that goes along with that, there are numerous challenges. Squads must be rotated to keep legs fresh and guys fit. Salah is as important as anybody in this regard.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” regularly appears on WGN CLTV and co-hosts the “Let’s Get Weird, Sports” podcast on SB Nation.
You can follow Banks, a former writer for NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com on Twitter here and his cat on Instagram at this link.