Mohamed Salah has decided to return to Liverpool early as preparations begin for Sunday's visit from Chelsea

Mohamed Salah celebrates the second goal during the UEFA Champions League 2024/25 League Phase MD2 match between Liverpool FC and Bologna FC 1909 at Anfield on October 2, 2024(Image: Simon Stacpoole/Offside/Offside via Getty Images)

Arne Slot was just a few weeks into his Liverpool career when he received his first major boost, from Mohamed Salah.

The Reds' leading scorer of the Premier League era decided that a full and uninterrupted pre-season schedule would serve him better in the long term than participation in the Olympic Games in Paris.

Turning down the opportunity to compete for a gold medal with Egypt as one of their three players aged over 23 would no doubt have been a difficult call for someone as dedicated, competitive and patriotic as Salah, but having just turned 32 a few weeks prior, the choice to remain on Merseyside for the early throes of the summer schedule was the first major indicator of a player now thinking for the years ahead.

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Instead of turning out for the Pharaohs in France, Salah was instead one of the first on duty for Slot and his backroom team when Liverpool reconvened at the AXA Training Centre in early July.

And rather than simply go through the motions of the arduous running-based training drills, particularly when the group was shorn of so many other top stars at the time, the Liverpool forward instead set about showing his new boss exactly what he was all about.

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The Six-Minute-Race endurance exam, as the name indicates, lasts for six minutes around a 400m race track with the exercise designed for those undertaking it to go as fast as possible to cover somewhere between 1.5 and 2km and it was one where Salah first showcased his enduring class to Slot.

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"Phenomenal," was the description of Salah's performance by Conall Murtagh, Liverpool's head of physical performance, as he knocked Sepp van den Berg - a player 10 years his junior - off the leaderboard at the Kirkby base.

Like the quiet shunning of the Olympics, Salah's outstripping of his colleagues in that newly-introduced test was another early hint that he was desperate to hit the ground running under his new boss.

How much of that was centred around being the main man at Liverpool for a brand new regime and how much of it was an attempt to safeguard his own future through his performances while inside the final 12 months of his contract on Merseyside, perhaps only Salah will know, but it's been a potent mix for supporters to enjoy so far.

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In Slot's first 10 games, the Egyptian has six goals and five assists, proving that the decision to undertake a 'proper' pre-season programme with the new setup was an inspired one.

The call which was made over the weekend to return into the care of his club over playing for Egypt at Mauritania's Stade Cheikha Ould Boidiya was a fair and practical one that gives the 32-year-old the best possible chance of starring when Chelsea visit Anfield on Sunday afternoon.

There were legitimate concerns over the artificial turf of the Nouakchott stadium, with a statement from Egypt confirming a meeting was held with Salah and manager Hossam Hassan, where it was decided the Reds forward would sit out the match.

As well as the concerns over the pitch in Mauritania's national stadium, it was also alleged the hosts would have no problem engaging in what Hassan described as "violent interventions".

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Hassan said: "If any player asks me not to play on artificial turf, I will agree.

If Salah specifically asks me to do so, I will agree."

With due respect to Egypt and their efforts to improve their chances of qualifying for the Africa Cup of Nations, it is no doubt a sigh of relief for Slot and Liverpool as a whole that Salah has chosen to return to Merseyside ahead of featuring on a dangerous pitch against an opposition who, by the Pharaohs' own admission, would approach the game in a particularly robust manner.

At the age of 32 and inside the final few months of his Anfield contract, putting club before country makes total sense just now, particularly given the way the Reds have started the Slot era and the importance of some of the upcoming games.

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Given the injury issues sustained earlier this year on Africa Cup of Nations duty and the subsequent fitness struggles and downturn in form that followed, Salah is once more sensibly playing the long game.


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