Mohamed Salah doubtful for Egypt vs Nigeria friendly ahead of AFCON 2025 | OneFootball

Late arrival puts Liverpool star’s availability in doubt

Mohamed Salah doubtful for Egypt vs Nigeria friendly ahead of AFCON 2025

With Egypt’s AFCON campaign just days away, the technical team is reluctant to take unnecessary risks.

Egypt head coach Hossam Hassan is weighing up whether to rest Mohamed Salah in Tuesday’s international friendly against Nigeria with the Liverpool star set to arrive in Cairo just hours before kick off.

According to multiple Egyptian reports, Salah expected to land in Egypt in the early hours of Tuesday morning leaving the technical staff with limited recovery time ahead of the match which kicks off at 18:00 GMT at Cairo International Stadium.

Late arrival clouds Salah’s availability

For the same reason, Marmoush along with Salah also missed the Egyptian national team's last training session.

Several reports indicate that Salah's delayed arrival is due to travel problems from England which prompted the Egyptian Football Association to postpone his official joining of the camp until match day.

Friendly seen as final AFCON rehearsal

The Nigeria match represents Egypt’s final test before travelling to Morocco for AFCON 2025 which runs from 21 December to 18 January.

Following the friendly, Egypt will fly to Agadir on 17 Wednesday December departing Cairo at 15:00 gmt.

All 28 players named in Egypt’s AFCON squad are now present with the exception of Salah and Marmoush.