A slew of Liverpool players will be taking part in the World Cup and one player that everyone had on their minds was Mohamed Salah and his chance of doing something special with Egypt.

The first game of the tournament was against Uruguay and former Liverpool man Luis Suarez. Unfortunately for the Pharaohs, they lost the game to a late Jose Gimenez goal but not bringing Salah on at all was irking, to say the least.

Think about it. Why would you keep your best player on the bench if you did not want to bring him on at all?

Egypt weren’t bad against a superior side but the game lacked quality, something that Salah would have easily provided. After all, the Liverpool man had the season of his life and could have done more had it not been for Sergio Ramos.

Granted, there were fears that the attacker had not recovered from his shoulder injury but if that was the case, why was he named in the side at all?

It really makes little to no sense to add a player to the 18-man matchday squad without any chance of him making an impact on the game.

Would it not have been better to keep him out of the side and prepare him better for the next game? Of course, you could keep Salah in the side for emotional and psychological support but keeping him in the 18-man squad just did not make an iota of sense.

This isn’t the first time or the last time we will see this. Similar situations have taken place with the likes of Emre Can or Adam Lallana being put into the side without them getting a run-out or getting a couple of minutes to play. And it isn’t just Jurgen Klopp who would do this, as almost every top manager uses the matchday squad, more often than not, will include players that may not get to play.

Liverpool fans would have been upset with the fact that they could not see Salah against Suarez even for a couple of minutes.

However, Egypt were playing a long game as their real opponents in the race for the second place would be Russia and Saudi Arabia. The hosts were truly impressive against the Arabs but Egypt did seem to provide more fight to Uruguay.

Big relief still for the Reds

With Salah not playing, it will come as great news for us as he did not have to go against the likes of Gimenez or Diego Godin, a couple of players that don’t necessarily play clean.

It is one game less that we have to worry about and hope that our star player comes back fit for a real go at the Premier League title and more.

Of course, should Egypt make it out of the group, they could face Spain and that in itself will be a major story as we could see Salah v Ramos part II. However, their defeat against Russia tonight paints a worrisome picture.

Nevertheless, if Egypt progress by luck and face Spain in the next round, let’s hope to see a better outcome for us and not Salah fighting to get Ramos booked. The best outcome for us would be to see Salah win this clash and come back in great form, for what could be a truly special season at Anfield.