Egypt fans turn on Mohamed Salah over decision to leave Africa Cup of Nations squad

Mohamed Salah’s decision to leave the Africa Cup of Nations in the Ivory Coast to undergo treatment on his hamstring injury in the UK has kicked off a storm back in Egypt.

Fans and media commentators back home have questioned their captain's commitment to the Pharaohs’ Afcon campaign and his failure to stay with the squad ahead of the knockout stages.

The Liverpool forward has long been the darling of Egypt’s football fans, revered for his goalscoring skills and admired for giving back to his home country and the Nile Delta village from which he hails.

But the backlash over the decision to return to club side Liverpool for medical treatment for the injury picked up during the group-stage draw with Ghana has been brutal.

“Does it really work for the commander and captain to abandon his men and soldiers?” wrote Ahmed Mostafa, a widely read amateur football critic, on Facebook. “If we lose now, then he will have had nothing to do with it. If we win, he will come back for the semi-finals or the final and reap the labour of others.

“A dishonourable position that I fail to understand.”

“Frankly, Salah and the management have handled the situation in a way that could end the love fans feel for the squad,” predicted football commentator Mahmoud Elmakhbazy.

Former Egypt captain Ahmed Hassan told the UK's Daily Mirror newspaper that Salah should be staying with the Egypt squad “no matter what, even if he only had one leg to stand on”.

Even back in 2021, there were some who questioned the wisdom of Salah being given the captain's armband, the suggestion being there are others in the squad more suited to the role.

Ivory Coast AFCON Soccer

And those questions are resurfacing after the confusion over when Salah's trip back to the UK