Mohamed Salah returned to the Liverpool starting line up last Saturday, in a 2-0 victory over Brighton, and provided an assist to Hugo Ekitike, giving him a record for most goal involvements for a single team in Premier League history with 277, surpassing Wayne Rooney's 276 goal involvements with Manchester United.
The 33-year-old striker is leaving now to the Africa Cup of Nations, where he will not return until early to mid January, depending on how far Egypt goes in the competition. And after that, will he return to Liverpool? His presence in the team and recent assist suggests that coach Arne Slot counts on him after their talk last weekend, but a body language expert thinks otherwise.
Darren Stanton, renowned body language expert who appears regularly on English TV, spoke to OLBG (via Goal.com) and noticed how emotional Salah was in the match: "Mohamed Salah looked very, very emotional after the Brighton game. I think it was almost like his epitaph. I don't think we're going to see him again, if I'm honest".
Fans in Anfield, knowing the rumours that the club might sell him in January, after the player was benched regularly in the last weeks, responded with a larger than usual round of applauses for Salah, and carried banners with his name. "He had tears in his eyes when he was clapping along with the crowd, so I think that's his swan song, his kind of farewell", Stanton explained, adding that he had was flashing "micro-expressions of sadness". "I think even though it's not formal, I think he knows in his heart that he's never going to be in that situation and walk on that pitch again."
Do you think this is really the last time we will see Mohamed Salah (who joined the club in 2017 and has a contract running until June 2027) in Liverpool?