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Mohamed Salah drew laughs from reporters at Anfield as he rejected requests to stop in the mixed zone after Liverpool's Premier League win over Brighton on Saturday.
A week ago, it seemed as though Salah might have been on the way out of Liverpool after his incendiary chat with journalists at Elland Road.
However, after being left out of the trip to Inter Milan in the Champions League in midweek as punishment for his remarks in West Yorkshire, Salah was — somewhat surprisingly — back in the gameday squad against Brighton.
Salah entered the fray earlier than he would have expected after Joe Gomez suffered an injury in the first half, and he produced one of his better performances of the season despite not getting on the scoresheet, assisting on Hugo Ekitike's second goal of the match.
After the game, Salah walked past the mixed zone on his way out of Anfield but laughed as he declined to stop, saying: "Oh God! Two weeks in a row? No!"
Meanwhile, Liverpool head coach Arne Slot praised Salah's performance against Brighton, seven days on from Salah saying he no longer had a relationship with his manager..
"I think he was a threat,” Slot told Sky Sports. “I think the first ball he touched he almost gave an assist to [Alexis] Mac Allister who squared it, I think, and maybe was a chance for him to shoot as well.
"He was constantly in the threat we had. It was pleasing to see but also not a surprise because he has done that many times in a Liverpool shirt.”
Asked whether it was an easy decision to restore Salah to the squad after a week of chatter surrounding Liverpool's most high-profile player, Salah said: “It was an easy decision to put him in the squad and I’ve said many times before what has been said between the two of us, for me that stays between the two of us.
"He was back in the squad again and we needed him because he was the first substitution I made. He assisted for the 2-0 for the corner kick which is also very nice for us because we have been so many times this season on the wrong side of the set-piece battle. Today we scored one and didn’t concede. That led to our win.”
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