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Mohamed Salah has been left out of the squad for Liverpool’s Champions League match at Inter Milan.
The club have decided to remove Salah from selection for a short period after he gave an explosive interview on Saturday, claiming that he was “thrown under the bus” by Liverpool and his relationship with head coach Arne Slot had broken down.
Sources told BBC Sport that the decision has been taken with the full support of Slot and that it is in the best interest of all parties involved for Salah to have a brief period away from selection given the nature and timing of the player’s public comments.
It is understood there will be no formal disciplinary action taken by the club.
The 33-year-old is set to depart for the Africa Cup of Nations next Monday and also looks likely to also miss Liverpool’s game against Brighton on Saturday.
Liverpool’s 19-man squad flew to Milan on Monday afternoon and Slot will speak at the news conference alongside Alisson Becker at 18:45 GMT.
Salah gave his interview after he was an unused substitute in Saturday’s 3-3 draw at Leeds United – the third straight game the Egypt international has started on the bench.
Rooney: ‘Disrespectful’ Salah comments ‘threw Liverpool under the bus’
The Reds let a 2-0 lead slip in the draw at Leeds, with Salah an unused substitute for the game.
The previous two games had seen Salah come on as a substitute in a 1-1 home draw at Sunderland, while he was left on the bench in a 2-0 win at West Ham.
His last start was in a 4-1 defeat by PSV Eindhoven at Anfield in a Champions League group game and his last goal came in a 2-0 win at Aston Villa on Saturday, 1 November.
Salah has scored five goals in 18 appearances in the Premier League and Champions League this season.
Overall, he has 250 goals in 420 Liverpool appearances and his 29 top-flight goals in the 2024-25 campaign helped the Anfield side win the Premier League title last season.
Salah, who joined Liverpool from Roma in 2017, signed a new two-year contract with the club in April.
BBC Sport pundit and former England striker Wayne Rooney has said Salah is “destroying his legacy” at the club and said prior to the forward being left out of the Inter game that Slot should not involve him in Italy or for the home match against Brighton on Saturday.
“In my head, I’m going to enjoy that game because I don’t know what is going to happen now,” Salah said on Saturday.
“I will be in Anfield to say goodbye to the fans and go to Africa Cup of Nations. I don’t know what is going to happen when I am there.”
Salah is destroying his legacy – Rooney
Liverpool forward Mohamed Salah is destroying his legacy, says former Manchester United striker Wayne Rooney.
Salah said on Saturday he felt like he had been “thrown under the bus” by Liverpool and that his relationship with head coach Arne Slot had broken down.
Rooney believes that Slot must now show his authority and not involve Egypt international Salah in Tuesday’s Champions League game at Inter Milan or next Saturday’s home match with Brighton.
“Arne Slot has to show his authority and pull him in and say ‘you are not travelling with the team, what you said is not acceptable’,” said Rooney in his latest podcast episode.
“Take yourself off to Afcon and let everything calm down. If I was him there would be no way he would be in the team.”
Rooney said Salah needed to either iron out his differences with Slot, or leave Liverpool.
“It needs to be sorted out quickly either way,” he added.
Is there any way back for Salah and Liverpool?
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It will go down as one of the most explosive interviews in the Premier League era.
Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah stunned most people on Saturday evening when he claimed his relationship with manager Arne Slot had “broken down”.
The Egyptian, arguably one of the Premier League’s greatest players, cranked up the pressure on Slot after spending the third game in a row on the substitutes bench, as Liverpool let a lead slip twice in a 3-3 draw with Leeds.
Claims such as he had been “thrown under the bus” and that “someone didn’t want him at the club” were probably the last thing Slot wanted to hear put into the public, especially after a forgettable run of form that leaves the champions ninth in the Premier League.
But what now for Salah at Liverpool? The 33-year-old only signed a new two-year deal in April but admitted on Saturday he was unsure whether he had played his last game for the club.
BBC Sport takes a closer look at what happens next to the player who has scored 250 goals in 420 Liverpool appearances.
Salah says he has been ‘thrown under the bus’ by Liverpool
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Mohamed Salah says he feels like he has been “thrown under the bus” by Liverpool and his relationship with head coach Arne Slot has broken down.
Salah was an unused substitute in Saturday’s 3-3 draw at Leeds United – the third straight game the Egypt forward has started on the bench.
After the game, the scorer of 250 goals in 420 Liverpool appearances said in an extraordinary interview with journalists: “I think it is very clear that someone wanted me to get all of the blame.
“I said many times before that I had a good relationship with the manager, and all of a sudden we don’t have any relationship.
“I don’t know why but it seems to me, how I see it, that someone doesn’t want me in the club.
“It seems like the club has thrown me under the bus. That is how I am feeling. I think it is very clear that someone wanted me to get all of the blame.
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Read the full interview at the bottom of this page
“This club, I will always support it. My kids will always support it. I love the club so much and I always will.