World Cup qualifier: Mohamed Salah joins the Egyptian National Team for qualifying matches in Gabon

The Egyptian Soccer Association announced on Saturday that football superstar Mohamed Salah had arrived in Gabon to join the team for their World Cup qualifying matches.

The Egyptian Soccer Association announced on Saturday that football superstar Mohamed Salah had arrived in Gabon to join the team for their World Cup qualifying matches. They brought out a brief statement, saying that Liverpool FC’s forward Salah has joined the Pharaohs to prepare for their match against Gabon on Sunday at Franceville.

The 29-year-old missed out on the team’s 1-0 win over Angola on the 1st of September in Cairo after Liverpool, at first, refused to release him because of COVID-19 pandemic restrictions that still exist in the United Kingdom regarding overseas travel. Arsenal midfielder Mohamed Elneny also had to miss the game against Angola due to those restrictions.

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Egypt is on the red list of countries compiled by the United Kingdom and hence would have to quarantine for ten days on their return to England which would have resulted in them missing out on two Premier League games. Unlike Salah though, Elneny did not travel to Gabon as he suffered from a muscle injury which he got during training two days back, as per the association.

Salah is Egypt’s first player to win a Premier League title after joining Liverpool in 2017. He earned the Premier League Golden Boot twice during this time. He also broke the most amount of goals scored during a 38 game Premier League season (32 goals). He contracted the virus when he left for home in Cairo, Egypt in November to attend his brother’s wedding. At that time, he was supposed to join the national team to play a qualifying game against Togo.