AFCON
Liverpool coach, Klopp worried over Salah’s injury –
It is too early to tell the extent of Mohamed Salah’s injury, Juergen Klopp said on Friday, but the sight of the Liverpool talisman limping off the pitch with what his club manager called a hamstring injury rang alarm bells with the Merseyside team.
Liverpool were handed a scare when Salah, the Premier League’s joint top scorer this season with Manchester City’s Erling Haaland, limped off just before halftime in Egypt’s 2-2 draw with Ghana at the Africa Cup of Nations on Thursday.
“We don’t know anything about it,” Klopp told reporters on Friday. “I spoke with him last night and how it was. They are doing further assessments now and then we will know more.
“At that moment he was shocked and couldn’t see why he was hit by something so intense. You have these hamstring injuries in a different way. He felt it and we know how rarely Mo goes off, or needs to go off, so it is definitely something, but I don’t have any more information right now.”
The 31-year-old is rarely injured and has missed just 10 league games in six-plus seasons.
Klopp said he was uncertain whether Liverpool’s medical staff would travel to the Ivory Coast to assess the extent of Salah’s injury.
“We will see. It depends on the diagnostics,” he said. “We will have ultrasound and MRI and then we will know what it is and we will see and make plans, but it’s too early (at the moment).”
Liverpool, who play at Bournemouth on Sunday, top the Premier League on 45 points after 20 games, two points clear of Manchester City. Aston Villa also have 43 points but have played one more game than the two sides above them.
Liverpool will likely be without Trent Alexander-Arnold again on Sunday, Klopp said, after the defender injured his knee in their FA Cup third-round win over Arsenal on Jan. 7.
“Obviously he can walk, on the catwalk,” Klopp said, when asked about Alexander-Arnold being spotted at a fashion show this week in Milan.
“The injuries are all positive, but not ready. (Alexander-Arnold, Andy Robertson and Dominik Szoboszlai) are all going in the right direction but we will see when they can join first-team training. I don’t expect them for Bournemouth.
“I hope that nobody else will be out,” the manager added. “After Bournemouth and maybe for Fulham (League Cup semi-final on Wednesday). Trent is close, Robertson close and Dom close. So all going in the right direction but for the weekend’s game, no.”
-Reuters
The Libyan Football Federation (LFF) has sacked its Serbian coach, Milutin Sredojević who is popularly known as Micho.
This is coming ahead of Libya’s back-to-back Africa Cup of Nations clashes with Nigeria next month.
Paradoxically, Sports Village Square gathered that the coach’s contract was only recently renewed for six months before the axe fell on the Serbian.
His sack was precipitated by the results obtained in their teo matches of the AFCON qualifiers.
Libya drew 1-1 with Rwanda at home and lost 2-1 away to Benin Republic despite beig a goal up at half time.
The Libyan side, Mediterranean Knights are due to play against the Nigeria Super Eagles in Uyo on 6 October while the return leg holds on 14 October at the 11 July Stadium in Tripoli.
According to information Sports Village Square gathered from Tripoli, the Mediterranean Knights’ coach, Micho led the Libyan national team to win nine matches since taking over in October of last year, he failed to build a strong team due to his poor choices.
He also took a risk with the footballers chosen in the AFCON qualifiers, and the result was shocking to the Libyan sports audience.
According to sources close to the Libyan Football Federation, there is a strong tendency to sign a national coach to lead the Libyan team during the remaining qualifiers for the African Cup of Nations.
CAF President Patrice Motsepe has lashed out at Ghana and some other African countries whose home grounds were recently banned from hosting CAF matches owing to inadequate facilities. He made the remarks in Nairobi, Kenya during a press conference,
After the MatchDay 2 of the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers, CAF ruled Ghana’s Baba Yara Stadium in Kumasi as being inadequate to host international matches. Being the only approved ground in the country, Ghana will now look towards either Cote d’Ivoire or Togo for their remaining home matches of the Afcon qualifiers.
Other African countries without approved home grounds are: Djibouti, Chad, Niger, Eritrea, Gabon, Sudan, Zimbabwe, Madagascar, São Tomé and Burundi.
Motsepe voiced his frustration over the recurring issue of nations being unable to host home games.
“Nothing frustrates me more than a national team or club side having to play home matches outside,” he stated.
He stressed the significance of playing in front of home fans, adding, “You can’t grow football if the national teams or club sides aren’t playing in front of their home fans.”
Motsepe reiterated CAF’s commitment to working with countries to ensure they have at least one suitable stadium to host international fixtures.
“Our conversations in every country are to make sure there is at least one stadium capable of hosting a CAF category C game,” he emphasized.
The on-going CAF AFCON Cote d’Ivoire 2023 Coaches Symposium in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire has brought together, the last three coaches that handled the Nigeria national football team.
Gernot Rohr, Jose Peseiro and Austin Eguavoen are part of the the elite coaches currently gathered in Abidjan.
Gernot Rohr whose tenure of 5 years and 55 matches is the longest ever by any coach in Nigeria, is currently handling Nigeria’s Africa Cupof Nations and World Cup qualifying rivals, Benin Republic. He was succeeded in the interim by Austin Eguavoen who is currently having another interim stint.
Peseiro left his position after the Africa Cup of Nations
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