Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah told his manager he’s “all fine, all good” after picking up an injury, but Jurgen Klopp said his star player is a doubt to face Everton on Saturday and slammed the Premier League for putting the Merseyside derby in the early kick-off.
Salah was forced to come off early in the second half of Wednesday’s 3-0 Champions League quarterfinal first leg win over Manchester City.
And while Klopp relayed Salah’s positive outlook in his postgame news conference, he also cautioned Liverpool will still be anxiously awaiting tests on his fitness.
“After the game I asked [Salah] and he said: ‘I will be fine, I will be good.’ But now we have to wait for the real diagnosis and not only Mo’s self-diagnosis,” Klopp said. “I don’t know in the moment.”
Having already scored Liverpool’s opener, Salah received medical attention on the sideline early in the second half. He then headed straight down the tunnel as was replaced by Georginio Wijnaldum in the 53rd minute.
“He came to the sideline and said he sometimes feels something,” Klopp said. “That was enough for me to not even ask the doc how he is and [I] immediately took him off the pitch.”
The German also used the opportunity to again express his displeasure that the Premier League moved forward Liverpool’s next game against Everton from Sunday to Saturday despite the midweek Champions League game.
“We play on Saturday at 12:30 and if you want to see games like this [an all-English quarterfinal], then the Premier League have to think about [rescheduling] — have to think about, really,” Klopp told BT Sport.
“Because that will be really tough [for Salah to face Everton], and probably Everton are more happy about the game [time] than we are, and that’s not fair.
“Being in international competition should not cause you problems. It should be something good, and not cause you problems.
“We have now a problem to find somehow players for Saturday, and everyone’s telling us it’s the most important game of the year, and that’s quite difficult.
“So I’m not really over the moon at the moment, I’m really angry about a few people who make decisions in this league.”
Salah has been Liverpool’s most important player this season, having scored 38 goals in all competitions following his summer move from Roma.
He is a leading candidate to be named the Player of the Year in the Premier League, and even his chief rival for the PFA honour, Manchester City midfielder Kevin De Bruyne, said earlier he had no option but to vote for the Egyptian.
Glenn is ESPN FC’s Liverpool correspondent. You can follow him on Twitter: @GlennPrice94.
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