DALLAS — Mohamed Salah looks set to feature for Egypt in their round of 32 clash with Australia on Friday after recovering from a hamstring strain, but coach Hossam Hassan would not commit to starting the superstar attacker.
Salah, 34, suffered an injury 57 minutes into Egypt’s 1-1 draw with Iran last Friday that put them into the knockout rounds, with the severity of the injury reiterated when he requested to be substituted out with the game still in the balance.
The Liverpool legend was subsequently diagnosed with a strained hamstring muscle by Egyptian medical staff and commenced what the federation described as an “intensive rehabilitation program” to ensure his availability for the Pharaohs’ showdown with the Socceroos at AT&T Stadium.
Salah rejoined Egypt training Wednesday and was present and appeared relatively unencumbered during the 15 minutes that the media were permitted to observe of the team’s final training session on Thursday.
Hours later, Hassan confirmed in his prematch news conference that his talisman would be available.
“Against Iran, we learned that he suffered a hamstring strain during the second half of the match and asked to be substituted,” the coach said via a FIFA interpreter. “Our very distinguished medical department took care of that, and we tried to introduce him to partial team training as of yesterday only.
“But Salah is a passionate player; he is very much looking forward to making his own contributions with his teammates tomorrow.
“But of course, I am not going to run any risk unless I am sure that he is 100 percent sure of the fact that he is fit and raring to go tomorrow.
“We look forward to him playing tomorrow, not sure though whether he is going to be in the starting line-up.”
Regardless of what form it takes, Salah’s availability for the clash with the Socceroos would present a significant boost for Egypt.
Though one of Africa’s premier powers, the Pharaohs are searching for the first-ever knockout win at the World Cup, just weeks on from recording their first-ever win of any kind when they came from behind to defeat New Zealand 3-1. Salah scored one of Egypt’s goals in the win over New Zealand.
Left-back Ahmed Fatouh is certain to miss the contest with a hamstring tear, while midfielder Mohanad Lasheen is suspended. Manchester City attacker Omar Marmoush is expected to start, but has yet to fire in North America and was forced to come off the bench in the draw with Iran.
Also of particular interest to Egyptian media ahead of the contest was how Hassan planned to deal with the sheer physical size of his opponents, with the Socceroos’ presumptive backline of Alessandro Circati, Harry Souttar, and Lucas Herrington, as well as goalkeeper Patrick Beach, all at least 190 cm (6-foot-3 inches) tall, and using that to great effect in keeping clean sheets against Türkiye and Paraguay in the group stages.
“We will be fine,” the coach said wryly in response. “We are not playing rugby here, we are playing football.”
