Arne Slot fears Mo Salah’s Liverpool career could be over after the forward injured his hamstring against Crystal Palace on Saturday.
The 33-year-old, who will leave Anfield at the end of the season, limped out of the 3-1 win just short of the hour mark and must now undergo scans on his left leg to establish if he has any chance of appearing in the final four games of the campaign.
Slot was unable to provide any indications of whether that will materialise, admitting: ‘We don’t know. That is the best answer I can give.
‘There might be a chance but we simply don’t know. What we do know is that the season is over in four or five weeks so there are not a lot of games and we have to wait and see how.
‘But Mo has taken such good care of his body all these years that he will have the minimum time required to recover. Let’s hope for the best.’
Slot added: ‘Another win and another injury. It’s the story of our season.
Mohamed Salah will have to undergo scans to understand the severity of his hamstring injury
‘It’s too early to say but we all know Mo and how hard it is for him to leave the pitch. For Mo to leave the pitch, it shows you something but we have to wait and see how bad it is.’
While the win strengthened Liverpool’s hold on Champions League qualification, the victory involved some controversy when Palace closed the deficit to 2-1 after Slot’s goalkeeper Freddie Woodman injured his knee in a collision with Ismaila Sarr. With Woodman hurt, Daniel Munoz lifted the ball into an empty net.
That provoked furious protests from Slot, Virgil van Dijk and Liverpool’s fans, with the expectation that the game would be stopped. In the event of a head injury, it would have been, but the fact Woodman was eventually deemed fit to carry on appeared to validate the decision of referee Andy Madley to allow play to continue.
Slot said: ‘The number of times I’ve played against a team and then a player is on the floor and the referee blows the whistle. It happened against Manchester United when [Alexis] Mac Allister was on the floor, they played on and Macca needed five stitches afterwards. I don’t blame them, by the way, the referee should stop the game.
‘It’s going to become a tactic to pretend you’re injured so the referee stops the play. He did it about four times today. Munoz, I think it’s 50-50 because some players wouldn’t have taken the shot. Some players would stop and some would score. I don’t blame him as much as I blame the referee.’
Palace manager Oliver Glasner said: ‘It was a difficult situation because he made a big save but the ball goes to Munoz. Everything goes so quickly. He could continue the game until the end and that’s why we think it was the right decision. I think that was OK.
‘When you watch it on TV, it’s on the edge, to be honest. He makes the save, then tries to get up then he raises his arm but Munoz is already taking the finish. If he hits his head then the game has to be stopped. It was the right decision I think.’
