Chelsea’s Christian Pulisic and Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah have a lot in common right now. Both wingers have scored five goals and registered five assists so far this season, across all competitions, the only two Premier League players to do so.
Both are also not playing for their countries this international break; Pulisic for the United States, Salah in regards to Egypt. With the former, he’s fit, but he didn’t get hardly any rest at all this summer, so his R&R is long overdue.
With the latter, Liverpool are genuinely concerned over the severity of his ankle problem, an injury that first occurred in the win over Leicester City at the end of September.
So it’s good news for the Reds that Salah will miss the Pharaohs qualifying for the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations this week and next. Mo Salah is officially out of tomorrow’s qualifier at home against Kenya and the trip to Comoros on Monday. Obviously, Egypt needs him as he’s the side’s best and most well known player, but they are heavily favored to end up as one of the sides making the AFCON 2020 field; even without him.
Of course, Liverpool need him even more this season as they are active in five different competitions. The Reds are focused on: defending their Champions League title, currently lead the Premier League, are through to the quarterfinals of the EFL Cup, commence the Club World Cup next month and the FA Cup in the New Year.
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.