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Alan Shearer thinks Mohamed Salah has played his last game for Liverpool ahead of the Egyptian's showdown talks with Arne Slot today that will determine whether or not he features against Brighton on Saturday.
After the explosive interview that Salah gave to reporters at Elland Road last weekend, he was left out of the squad that beat Inter Milan in the Champions League. But even though he is about to go to AFCON for a few weeks, the 33-year-old could be back involved one more time before he departs.
"I think that depends on Mo himself in terms of whether he's prepared to back down and accept that he shouldn't have done it if he wants to play for Liverpool again," Shearer said.
"I've been through all the reasons why I think he did it, and I understand his attitude and how he feels because I've been there myself. I've felt everything he feels when I got left out of the Sunderland game.
"The big difference is that he shouldn't have gone to the world press to say that. I guess he has to come out and apologize, although I'm not sure I see that happening. My belief is that he may not play for Liverpool again."
Slot refused to be drawn on whether Salah needed to say sorry or whether he would play for the Reds tomorrow. The Liverpool boss did well to sidestep questions on the situation.
"If it is the end for Salah at Liverpool, it'll be such a shame for him because he's been such a great," Shearer added. "He's a superstar and superstars are wired differently to normal footballers.
"It'd be a shame because of what he's achieved and what he's done at Liverpool. When you consider the greats of the game that have played for Liverpool, there are only two players who have scored more than him.
"He'll go down as a Premier League great whether he has played his last match or not, and it'd be such a shame for him to go out like this after what he's done for Liverpool.
"One thing I will say, though, is that it won't be forgotten all of this, but I don't think it'll ruin his legacy. He's achieved so much, and Liverpool wouldn't have won what they have without him.
"I think Slot has handled the situation really well. I thought he spoke well before and after the game on Tuesday. It was a very, very difficult situation for everyone but I thought he spoke with precision, honesty and openness. I thought he got things absolutely right."
"All the players spoke really well," Shearer, speaking to Betfair, continued. "But from a manager's point of view, when you make big calls like Arne Slot did — you then need to back it up with results.
"It was a massive win against Inter because you can imagine the backlash. You could imagine if Liverpool lost to Inter, you know what would've happened. You could've printed the headlines yourself.
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"To be fair to Arne, his players ran themselves ragged for him. They looked organized; there were no errors. That was the big thing.
"Liverpool defensively over the course of the season have had a lot of issues and there were hardly any, if any at all on Tuesday. To a man, most of them played very, very well.
"One or two could improve — Alexander Isak being one of them. But I thought it was a really good performance and result for Liverpool."
Liverpool.com says: Salah would have played against Inter Milan without his outburst, but the Reds wouldn't have performed in the same way. Fundamentally, that is why he won't start against Brighton — and why is might make sense to leave him out altogether, allowing a period of cooling off on both sides while he is away with Egypt in Morocco.
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