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Liverpool forward Mohamed Salah won't have many options if he leaves the Anfield side in the near future, Jamie Carragher has pointed out, with the Egyptian having thrown his future into doubt recently.
Salah spoke out after he was left on the bench at Elland Road for the 3-3 draw with Leeds. After that interview, in which he hinted that he could leave in January, Salah was then left out of the trip to Inter Milan in the Champions League but played well on his return to action against Brighton.
While his absence for AFCON could prove to be a timely cooling-off period, Salah will have to knuckle down when he comes back and regain his spot in the team.
As Carragher has pointed out, there isn't much choice for the 33-year-old, whose options — should he push for an exit — will be limited.
"He wouldn't be leaving to go to Barcelona or Real Madrid," Carragher said on The Overlap podcast, brought to you by Sky Bet. "We are talking about the Saudi league.
"Would you rather play every week in the Saudi league, or 50 percent of the games from now until the end of the season?
"Liverpool have had a terrible season, but could have an outside chance of getting to the semifinal or final of the Champions League, or playing in an FA Cup final.
"If that's not enough for him, go and play in Saudi Arabia, where nobody cares."
Salah only signed new terms with Liverpool back in April after months of speculation. It is a year to the day since his "more out than in" quotes at Southampton.
"Mo, in his seven years at that football club, has been allowed to not do the hard yards when you're running back to your own goal without the ball," Graeme Souness told Liverpool.com this week.
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"He's been allowed to do that simply because he gave you so much going the opposite direction by creating goals and chances for his teammates and scoring lots of goals.
"But when that's not happening. He has become a bit of a liability. That's the reality of it. The manager is trying to come up with a system where the first thing you have to do when you're in a bad period is make yourselves hard to beat. That's what he's tried to do by leaving him out, and he's deservedly been left out.
"I saw him in the Community Shield, first game against Crystal Palace at Wembley — he just wasn't at it. I was cutting him some slack because some players get fit quickly in pre-season, and others need three, four, five, six games.
"But he's never got going this year, and he must be honest with himself. He is not the same player."
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