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Rewind just a week, and the idea that Mohamed Salah would already have played his final game for Liverpool was unimaginable. Such a suggestion would have been laughed off by anyone on the outside.
But when Arne Slot didn't bring him on against Leeds United and Ao Tanaka scored a late leveler, Salah chose to go nuclear. The interview that he conducted with reporters in the Elland Road mixed zone offered an insight into exactly what he thought of the decision — and it was calculated, not an emotional mistake.
Salah had been left out of the starting XI for three games on the spin, and he didn't like it. The accusations that he leveled at Liverpool and Slot by now are well-documented, but it is no less staggering that they were aired in public.
He will be back in the Liverpool matchday squad to face Brighton this weekend, but, less than a week on, it is clear that the biggest winner from the whole thing was Slot.
His Liverpool team beat Inter Milan impressively on Tuesday — sans Salah — and heads into the weekend with the mood uplifted. The Dutchman has dealt with the whole period as well as he could have.
If this is to be the end for Salah at Liverpool — and Slot said talks have been ongoing this week between the club and his representatives before news emerged that he will return to the squad — it will be a sad final chapter.
The pair, the Liverpool boss said on Friday, would talk later that day to work out whether or not he should be in the matchday squad for the Premier League visit of Brighton. They clearly went well, but it would be a surprise if he started.
Salah's comments were selfish and while some of the points he made were valid, many of them simply didn't add up. No player, for instance, deserves to start a game on the basis of the level they reached in previous seasons.
The irony is that, given Cody Gakpo was injured and Federico Chiesa was ill, he would almost certainly have been in the team for the Champions League but ended up missing out — as Alisson Becker said, as a consequence of his own actions.
After Liverpool won and kept a clean sheet in a 4-4-2 shape on Tuesday, it would be a shock if too much changed against Brighton. Florian Wirtz should start, probably at the expense of Alexander Isak, but the argument for Salah coming in has only been weakened.
"I will have a conversation with Mo this morning and the outcome of that conversation determines how it will look tomorrow," Slot said on Friday morning.
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Though he is now ready to come back — whether an apology was forthcoming or not — Salah will then head off for AFCON.
In an ideal world, Salah would use the tournament in Morocco to reset, realize the error he made, and fully reintegrate, regardless of what part he plays this weekend. That would give him the chance to finish the season with Liverpool and wave a proper goodbye.
At that point, next summer, it is possible the numbers will add up for him to leave, presumably to Saudi Arabia, even with 12 months remaining on the contract he signed in April of this year.
Going before that, though, would not be a fitting end for a legend. Unfortunately for Salah, if that is how it plays out, it would all be of his own doing.
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