Mohamed Salah steps up recovery from injury

Mohamed Salah is already stepping up his recovery from a left shoulder injury as Liverpool’s star forward aims to be fit for Egypt and play in the 2018 World Cup this summer.

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Salah, 25, suffered ligament damage to his left shoulder after a challenge with Sergio Ramos which forced him to be subbed out during the first half of Liverpool’s 3-1 defeat to Real Madrid in the UEFA Champions League final in Kiev on Saturday.

However, the Egyptian FA and Salah have since quelled fears that the Premier League Player of the Season for 2017/18 would miss the World Cup this summer, Egypt’s first since 1990.

The Egyptian FA released a statement saying that Salah has traveled to Spain with Liverpool’s medical staff to undergo intensive rehabilitation work “for the duration of the treatment period” in order to give him the best possible chance of leading the Pharaohs this summer. They added that Salah’s rehab had started on Sunday, less than 24 hours after Liverpool’s defeat to Real.

Salah is in a race against time.

Egypt’s first group game, against Uruguay, comes on just the second day of the tournament (June 15, which happens to be Salah’s birthday) and their second game, against hosts Russia, is just four days later.

That means Salah has just over two weeks to work his way back to fitness, with many experts suggesting he will be out for three weeks with the type of shoulder injury he has sustained. If that timetable is correct, he will miss Egypt’s opening two games of the World Cup and only be fit for their final Group A game against Saudi Arabia on June 25.

Not having the leading goalscorer from the 2017/18 Premier League season at the World Cup — Salah scored 44 goals in all competitions for Liverpool and won every individual accolade available as he launched himself into the Ballon d’Or conversation — would be a huge loss for the tournament overall.

Salah, and Liverpool, are doing all they can to make sure he makes the big dance.

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