Mohamed Salah was so emotionally distressed from his shoulder injury that forced him off in tears 30 minutes into the Champions League final against Real Madrid, that he couldn't bring himself to watch to the rest of the game.
The 44-goal hero landed awkwardly on his shoulder as he tangled with Real skipper Sergio Ramos, with the Spaniard subject to a petition signed by a staggering 500,000 people and an attempted €1 billion lawsuit from an Egyptian lawyer as a result of his challenge - which many felt was deliberate.
With the nasty fall looking like it may even end Salah's World Cup dreams, the 25-year old was visibly gutted as he left the pitch, struggling to fight back the tears.
It was all too much for the former Roma man, who relied on updates for the game from security and social media - as per Liverpool physio Ruben Pons.
Advert
"We knew that it was something serious as soon as [Salah] fell on the ground because he never complains, we were afraid of the worst," he told MARCA.
"We were in the field until the break, I was devastated, I tried to transmit calmness. I told him that nothing could be done and that he did not worry too much, it was time to look for solutions and not to regret because things did not work.
"We were watching the game, we were looking at social networks and the security was telling us the result, Madrid has scored, we equalised.
Advert
"When we came back, the game was over, the whole team had changed and prepared for riding the team bus, we helped him change because he could not do it alone and we went to the airport."
Pons, who joined Liverpool in 2014, also issued a timeframe of three to four weeks before Salah is back on the pitch.
"Once we knew the injury we planned the treatment, he is sad about what happened but he is totally focused on recovery and seeing when he can be ready." he said.
Advert
"He is going to mark the recovery times, in principle it will be from three to four weeks but we are going to try to reduce those deadlines, that's the big goal."
Making Egypt's opening game against Uruguay might be a tough task, though the Egyptian FA, and Liverpool's physio team, seem to be relatively confident that he'll feature versus Russia and Saudi Arabia on June 19th and June 25th.
Here's hoping it is the case as we don't want to see Salah miss out on his first World Cup after such a sublime season.
Advert
(h/t The Mirror)
Featured Image Credit:Topics: Liverpool, Football News, Football, egypt, World Cup, Mohamed Salah, Mo Salah, Real Madrid
