Sadio Mane will not return in time after joining Senegal’s AFCON celebrations in Dakar; follow Liverpool vs Leicester live across Sky Sports digital platforms on Thursday evening; watch free match highlights shortly after full-time on skysports.com and the Sky Sports app
Mohamed Salah could feature for Liverpool against Leicester on Thursday
Liverpool forward Mohamed Salah could be in contention to face Leicester on Thursday only four days after losing the AFCON final with Egypt, Jurgen Klopp has confirmed.
Salah’s Egypt were beaten in a penalty shootout – in which the captain did not take a spot-kick – by Senegal in Sunday’s showpiece final in Cameroon.
Sadio Mane, who scored the winning penalty, joined celebrations in the Senegalese capital Dakar on Monday, and will not return to England in time to play in Thursday’s game, Klopp added.
Klopp told LiverpoolFC.com: “Mo is now back, I spoke already to him. He is very disappointed of course, but looking forward to all the things coming up here now. I spoke to him and pretty much the first thing Mo told me was: ‘I’m ready.’ Haha!
Sadio Mane scored the winning penalty as Senegal won the Africa Cup of Nations for the first time, beating Mo Salah and Egypt in a shootout
“He is an experienced player, he is a physical monster, to be honest, so we have to see. He will obviously have a little recovery session today and we will see how he feels tomorrow and from there we go.
“Sadio flies out if it’s possible on Wednesday night, so will arrive here on Thursday but he is, of course, then not involved in the Leicester game.
“It means the world to him, it means the world to his people, it means the world to Senegal and we respect that a lot and we would never consider to have called back him from there or whatever – let them do what they do in the moment because they deserve it.