How many games will Mo Salah miss for Liverpool because of the AFCON 2023?

It’s pretty clear how much Liverpool have relied on Mohamed Salah during the past few seasons - his numbers are a testimony to that. The Egyptian has provided a constant flow of goals for the team during the past seven seasons and when he’s not scoring them, he’s creating them. A player who is consistent and rarely injured is a great asset to any team and Salah will surely be missed while he is on duty with his national team at AFCON 2023 in the Ivory Coast.

Mo is the joint top scorer in the Premier League this season, tied on 14 goals with City’s Erland Haaling. Overall, his tally for Liverpool in all competitions stands at 18 - double the figure of his nearest team mates, Diogo Jota and Cody Gakpo, both on nine. So Salah’s contribution and importance to the Reds’ cause cannot be underestimated.

In his absence, Klopp and Liverpool will certainly miss him but it’s a situation they have been in before. At the last Africa Cup of Nations, Liverpool were deprived of three players: Salah, Sadio Mané and Naby Keïta. This time, only Salah is involved while holding midfielder Wataru Endo is also away, possibly for a similar amount of time - he will be skippering Japan at the Asia Cup which concludes on 10 February.

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Jones and Jota to the rescue

Liverpool have already had to survive without Salah for two games and emerged unscathed in both. A Third Round FA Cup tie against Arsenal could not have been a much bigger test but Klopp’s troops ran out 0-2 winners in London, with Gakpo, Núñez and Luis Díaz starting upfront.

Klopp started with Harvey Elliot, Jota and Luis Díaz leading the attack in Wednesday’s EFL Carabao Cup semi-final first leg against Fulham. Curtis Jones and Jota supplied the goals as the Reds will take a slim 2-1 lead into the return on Wednesday week.

So how much longer will they be without Salah? That will depend on how far Egypt progress at the tournament. As far as the bookies are concerned, the Pharaohs are not expected to emulate their performance from the previous edition, when they reached the final (losing to Senegal in the shootout).

At AFCON 2023, Rui Vitória’s team is expected to advance from the group stage but could struggle once they reach the knockout rounds - especially if they meet one of the favourites (Senegal, Morocco or hosts Ivory Coast).

Egypt start out in Group B alongside Cape Verde, Ghana and Mozambique. If they manage to win the group they will be drawn against one of three teams that finishes in third in groups A, C or D. If the Pharaohs end as runners-up in their group, they will face the runners-up in Group F (Morocco, Congo, Zambia or Tanzania). So hypothetically, unless Egypt suffer a complete meltdown, finish bottom of their group and are dumped out at the first hurdle, the earliest they could realistically be eliminated is at the Round of 16 stage which runs from 27 to 30 January.

Liverpool will be without Salah for even longer if Egypt reach the quarter finals, which will be played on 2 and 3 February - or the semis, which take place on 7 February. In the worst case scenario, at least for the Reds, if Egypt go all the way, Salah will be away until the final in Embipé on 11 February.

What happened with Salah and Mané at the last AFCON?

In the previous edition, Klopp’s Liverpool had to make do without two of their star forwards for the entire tournament. Salah’s Egypt and Mané’s Senegal met in the final. On that occasion, Salah missed six Liverpool games and Mané, seven. After the tournament, both players were given time off to recover and in the Senegalese forward’s case, to savour the feeling of being crowned champions of Africa.

AFCON 2021 finished on Sunday 6 February and Salah returned to Merseyside the following day. He was a sub in the next game, against Leicester (Thursday 10th) coming on for the last half hour. Mané meanwhile, returned on Friday 11th, trained as normal and started the weekend league game against Burnley (Sunday 13th). While Salah was away, Liverpool posted five wins and one draw.