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Liverpool forward Mohamed Salah will reportedly be left out of Egypt's second game in this international break after he fired his country to the World Cup earlier this week.
Salah scored twice - and shoved an opponent - as Egypt won in Djibouti, securing its place in the competition that will be held in the USA, Canada and Mexico. And he will now supposedly get the second game off as a result of it now being meaningless.
According to King Fut, Salah will remain with the team but won't feature against Guinea-Bissau on Sunday. That is Egypt's 10th and final World Cup qualifier and the scoreline doesn't matter.
Salah getting an extra rest and not being at risk of injury ahead of the visit of Manchester United when the Premier League resumes will be a boost for Liverpool.
The Egyptian has only scored three times at club level this season and is still working on his relationships with the likes of Florian Wirtz, Alexander Isak and Hugo Ekitike.
Salah's performances have come under scrutiny but the international break might provide a chance for him to reset and get himself back on track when the club game returns.
Troy Deeney is among the pundits to have offered a blunt take on Salah's performance against Chelsea last weekend while speaking on The Football Exchange podcast: "The same as he’s done all season. Terrible."
He continued: "But still, and remember, every time I’ve said he’s been terrible, everyone in the comments has been coming for me [saying] that I don’t like Mo Salah and I have an agenda. No, but he has been terrible. Terrible."
"He's still playing in the same position, but he just seems to be making the wrong decisions more often than not," Paul Scholes, the former Manchester United midfielder, said on The Good, The Bad and The Football podcast this week.
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"There's a couple of times, if you remember last year, look, he scored loads of goals, but a lot of the time he cutting in from that right hand side, his left foot, and he's playing some great balls into people to just tap in.
"There was a couple of instances on Saturday. He's cutting inside. He's ballooning the ball over the bar."
Liverpool.com says: Salah not playing well at the moment isn't a long-term worry for the Reds. He will be back to his best in no time and just needs to find his confidence again.
For all the talk about him not tracking back and defending enough, the real issue is that he isn't scoring goals. History would suggest that won't remain the case for long.
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