Mohamed Salah has tested positive for COVID-19 while on international duty, the Egyptian federation announced on Friday.
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The federation’s statement, translated by Twitter:Salah is infected with the Coronavirus:
The medical survey conducted on the mission of our first national football team showed that our international player Mohamed Salah, the star of Liverpool, was infected with the coronavirus after his scan was positive. Although he has no symptoms. The rest of the team was negative.
The 28-year-old superstar winger was expected to feature in the Pharaohs’ home-and-away Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers against Togo this week.
Instead, Salah will now begin a period of self-isolation until he returns negative test results for the coronavirus, at which point he will be allowed to resume football-related activities. It is unclear whether or not Salah will be permitted to return to England at this time.
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While Mohamed Salah will likely only miss one or two games for Liverpool, it’s yet another blow for the defending Premier League champions after Joe Gomez underwent surgery for a knee tendon injury suffered in England training earlier this week. Gomez is expected to miss the majority of the 2020-21 season, though he could return in the spring.
Just before Liverpool sent its players out to every corner of the globe for international duty, Trent Alexander-Arnold picked up a calf injury that is likely to keep him out of action for a month. The biggest blow, of course, was the torn ACL suffered by Virgil van Dijk, who will almost certainly miss the rest of the season.