Mohamed Salah is expected to report for duty to begin his pre-season training schedule at Liverpool today (Monday, July 8).
The Egypt international is poised to return to the club’s AXA Training Centre to undergo some routine testing after over seven weeks away from Merseyside.
The forward is to be put through his paces after head coach Arne Slot and his performance coach Ruben Peeters introduced a new way of developing fitness levels at the Kirkby base with a Six-Minute Race Test (6MRT) now part of the warm-up plans as opposed to the infamous lactate tests favored by former boss Jurgen Klopp and his staff.
The slot had a number of his younger players available to him over the weekend alongside more established first-team players like Curtis Jones, Harvey Elliott, Kostas Tsimikas, and Caoimhin Kelleher – and Salah is now set to head back for his first day.
The 32-year-old’s last involvement for the Reds came on May 19 in a 2-0 win over Wolverhampton Wanderers before he took part in Egypt’s World Cup qualifiers against Burkina Faso and Guinea-Bissau on June 6 and 10. Salah played the full game in both fixtures, scoring in the 1-1 draw with Guinea-Bissau.
Egypt had wanted their talisman to be part of the country’s Olympic Games football squad later this month as one of their three players aged over 23.
However, the decision was taken by Liverpool and the player himself to stay with the club this summer, with the pre-season schedule viewed as vitally important to starting a new regime under Slot on the right foot.
Participation in the Olympics would have seen the forward miss virtually the entirety of the summer period under Slot with the competition running from July 24 to August 9 and Liverpool’s players generally getting a three-week holiday period when their international commitments are concluded.
That was viewed as far from ideal given the Reds kick off their Premier League campaign at newly-promoted Ipswich Town in the 12.30 pm fixture on Saturday, August 17. Instead, Salah is now back at the Kirkby base to begin his pre-season work.
The decision to keep last season’s top scorer on board for the summer period is a huge boost for Slot, who met the media for the first time as the new head coach on Friday morning.
Salah joins the likes of Jarell Quansah and Conor Bradley among others at the AXA Centre, who all reported for training under Slot on Friday alongside Fabio Carvalho, who returns to the fold after a season out on loan with RB Leipzig and Hull City.
It’s understood the call for Salah to remain with his club this pre-season was taken with the blessing of their No.11 himself after consultation and he is keen to get off on the right foot for what is a new era at Anfield under Slot.
With the former Roma star set to play for only his second manager on Merseyside in what will be his eighth campaign with the Reds, Salah is determined to remain as influential as he was under Jurgen Klopp, during a period where he registered 211 goals.
Salah will now be part of the club’s contingent that flies to the United States later this month for friendlies with Real Betis, Arsenal, and Manchester United, meaning the Reds will be able to boast of having their most recognizable star in tow on the lucrative tour, which begins in Pittsburgh on July 26 before games against fierce rivals United in Philadelphia on July 31 and the Gunners in Columbia on August 3.
The Pharaohs’ captain is now into the final year of the most lucrative contract of all time at Liverpool and new sporting director Richard Hughes was coy when asked about the situation on Friday.
“Contractual situations, I don’t think it would be fair for me to talk about,” Hughes said. “These are private matters between the club and players. The only concern I have, that Arne has, about those situations and everyone else in the squad is that there is total commitment from the players to the cause for next season – and we are convinced that is the case.”