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Despite Mohamed Salah penning a fresh two-year deal with Liverpool, extending his stay at Anfield until 2027, Arne Slot will inevitably need to scout for the Egyptian's successor at some point next season.

The 32-year-old has been the shining star of the Premier League for most of this season, topping both the Golden Boot and Playmaker charts with an impressive tally of 27 goals and 18 assists from 32 appearances in England's top tier.

Salah notched up his 45th goal contribution of the Premier League season in his last game, assisting Luis Diaz to net the opener against West Ham United at home, setting a new record for a 38-game campaign.



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Moreover, he is on track to clinch the Golden Boot for a record-equalling fourth time.

Slot has already expressed confidence that Salah will continue to deliver such stellar performances into next season and beyond, following his contract renewal with Liverpool.

Salah has been a constant fixture in the Premier League this year, starting all 32 of their matches and only once failing to play for more than 80 minutes.

The semi-finals are set for January 14, leading up to the third-place play-off on January 17 and the grand finale in Rabat on January 18.

The 2025/26 Premier League season is scheduled to commence on Saturday, August 16, with the final round of matches taking place on Sunday, May 24, 2026

It's already been confirmed that there won't be any fixtures on Christmas Eve.

However, the full fixture schedule remains under wraps, so it's unclear how many matches participating players will miss until the Premier League fixture release day on Wednesday, June 18.

But if we use this season's schedule as a guide, AFCON would have clashed with eight Liverpool matches - six of which would have been Premier League games.

This contrasts with the 2023 edition of AFCON, which ran from January 13 to February 11

Using this season's schedule as a guide, AFCON could potentially rule a player out of up to 10 Liverpool games, including the preceding fixture (in this case, it would have been the League Cup quarter-final away at Southampton on December 18).

In addition to six Premier League fixtures, players participating in AFCON could also miss the seventh Champions League league phase encounter, scheduled for January 20-21, 2026, should their nation make it to the AFCON final.

While there's no guarantee that Liverpool will be in the League Cup semi-finals for the third consecutive year, the FA Cup third round does fall within AFCON's duration.

Salah is typically rested for such games anyway

Given the Egyptian's consistent presence this season, it presents an unfamiliar challenge for the Dutch boss as he transitions from one extreme to another.

From Liverpool's current attacking line-up, Chiesa, Elliott or Diaz could step up, although all three, along with Darwin Nunez and Diogo Jota, are rumored to be on their way out this summer.

Neither Elliott nor Chiesa have made a Premier League start under Slot yet, but the AFCON could change that next season if they remain at Anfield this summer.

However, if they do depart, and with Liverpool already anticipated to be shopping for a new center-forward this summer, the Reds might find themselves in need of another forward, despite having secured Salah's services for another two years.

* An AI tool was used to add an extra layer to the editing process for this story
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