Will Mohamed Salah play against Brighton? Arne Slot responds in new interview after Liverpool axe | OneFootball

Premier League clash at Anfield will be last Egypt star can play in before heading off to Africa Cup of Nations

Salah has been omitted from the Reds’ squad for their Champions League clash with Inter Milan on Tuesday night in the wake of a bombshell interview given in the aftermath of Saturday’s dramatic 3-3 draw against Leeds.

Having been named on the bench for the third Premier League game in a row, he delivered an extraordinary and incendiary rant in which he claimed he had been “thrown under the bus” at Liverpool and received all the blame for their struggles this season, also saying that his relationship with Slot had broken down.

Liverpool responded to Salah’s controversial interview - which was slammed as “disgraceful, choreographed and designed to cause maximum damage” by club legend Jamie Carragher on Sky Sports on Monday night - by leaving him out of the squad entirely for Tuesday’s high-profile trip to the San Siro.

Slot inevitably faced a number of questions regarding Salah - who had trained with the squad as usual in the morning - and his future at his pre-match press conference in Milan on Monday night, to which he responded: “Usually I am calm and polite, but that doesn't mean I am weak,

"If a player has these commands about so many things, then it's about me and the club to react. We reacted in a way you can see - he's not here.

“I don't feel my authority is undermined, it is not the way I feel it.

“After tomorrow we will look at the situation. There is always the possibility to return for a player. I have no clue [if Salah has played his last game for Liverpool] - I cannot answer that question at this point in time.”

Slot was asked again in a new interview with Amazon Prime Video if Salah would return to the squad against Brighton in the Premier League at Anfield on Saturday, the last game for which he will be available before joining up with the Egypt squad ahead of the Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco.

He replied in Milan: “We are here for the Inter game. And I think you can understand that the last two days were already a lot. A lot of things going on, after conceding in the last minute against Leeds.

Asked how he felt about the Salah situation, Slot said: “No, far from ideal. Not good for anyone. First of all, not for the club, not for the team, not for him as well.

“So, far from ideal, but, yeah, we reacted in the way we did not to take him here. And that tells you what we felt about his comments.”

Slot was also quizzed on if he felt that Salah’s accusation about being thrown under the bus at Liverpool was fair. He replied: “Those are his words, I don’t think it’s up to me to debate what he thinks, what he feels.

“But that’s definitely not what I feel. What in my opinion has happened, is that I didn’t start a player that played many, many, many games for Liverpool and for me. I think we’ve struggled this season, but already in the last part of last season with game plans of the opponent, not only talking about the long ball that most teams use against us.

“So I’ve tried to adapt, adapt, adapt. But after I think it was PSV and Nottingham Forest, where we again looked very vulnerable, I decided to do something else. And that’s what happened, that I did not play Mo against West Ham, did not play against Sunderland, where he came in, and did not play against Leeds.

“But everybody can have his opinion and use his own words about what he thinks about the situation, but it’s also up to us to react to them. If a player uses words we cannot accept.”

On Salah’s claim that he no longer had a relationship with Slot, the manager responded: “You’re going to go one by one with everything he said? It’s okay. For everyone who has been in football... I have been a player. Not at his level, by the way.

“I’ve been a manager now for several years. I think it always works the same as a manager. You like every player you work with if he’s playing or not.

“And as a player, sometimes players that don’t play don’t like their managers as much as they do when he plays. For me, I like Mo just as much as all the other players we have in our team.”