Aguirre reveals reasons behind Salah’s absence

CAIRO – 26 March 2019: Egypt national team manager, Javier Aguirre, revealed on Monday that he preferred not to call Liverpool Egyptian winger, Mohamed Salah, for the march camp to have the chances to follow other players.

“I wanted to watch other players who can be part of the national team squad at the African Cup of nations.” Aguirre said.

Aguirre excluded Liverpool winger, Mohamed Salah and West Bromwich defender, Ahmed Hegazi, and he preferred to leave them available for their clubs.

Mostafa Mohamed, Mohamed Nabil Dunga, Ahmed Aboul-Fotouh, Ahmed Ayman Mansour, Ammar Hamdy and Abdulrahman Magdy joined the national team camp for the first time in March camp.

Egypt faced Niger at the last round of 2019 African Cup of Nations’ Qualifiers and the game ended with a 1-1 draw and they will face Nigeria on Tuesday 26 March.

Aguirre added “I feel the African Cup of Nations’ importance for the people in Egypt and I hope to prepare the team to win the title.”

Egypt won the rights to host the tournament after being selected over South Africa.

The 2019 African Cup of Nations was initially scheduled to be hosted by Cameroon. However, Cameroon was stripped of hosting the tournament for serious delays in preparations.

Egypt is the most successful nation in the history of the competition as Egypt has won a record of seven titles including three in a row between 2006 and 2010.