Egypt national team director Ibrahim Hassan has indicated Mohamed Salah will not play for Liverpool again this season after sustaining a hamstring injury. Hassan said he expects the 33-year-old to be sidelined for the remainder of the campaign, a prognosis that would rule Salah out of Liverpool’s final home fixture against Brentford on May 24.

“He has suffered a hamstring tear and will require four weeks of treatment,” Hassan told Reuters . Any absence of at least four weeks would keep Salah out beyond the season’s last match, and Hassan has said he expects that to be the case.

With the World Cup approaching and likely to be Salah’s final opportunity to represent Egypt on the global stage, the forward is expected to prioritise recovery ahead of the tournament, which begins on June 11. That timetable makes a return to action for Liverpool before the summer unlikely.

When Brentford travel to Anfield on May 24, supporters will be aware the match itself may have to play second fiddle to farewells. Left back Andy Robertson has joined Salah in declaring that game as the end of their respective Liverpool careers. While Robertson may still hope for a playing farewell, Salah appears set to miss the chance to leave the field in front of the home crowd.

Liverpool are planning a public tribute on the final day of the season. The club will parade Salah, dressed in street clothes, onto the pitch after the final whistle so he can deliver a parting message to supporters.

There is obvious disappointment that Salah will be unable to contribute on the pitch as Liverpool chase Champions League qualification, which is not yet secured. Reds supporters will hope the club have secured a top-five finish before the Brentford fixture.

One consolation is statistical. Salah’s tally of 193 Premier League goals leaves him fourth on the all-time list. He would have needed 15 more to match Wayne Rooney and 28 more to equal Roger Hunt for Liverpool’s second-highest goals total.

Arne Slot declined to offer a definitive diagnosis after Mohamed Salah pulled up with a muscular problem, saying only that the forward would require the “minimum time” to recover. Slot stressed the uncertainty around the issue while underlining Salah’s preparation and history of care.

Salah made it clear that he had damaged his left hamstring after sinking to the turf. The durable forward went more than two years between muscular injuries before pulling up with a problem back in March. Now he faces the prospect of successive layoffs over a matter of weeks at the end of his final season at the club.

“We don’t know. That is the best answer I can give,” Slot warned when confronted with a swarm of questions about Salah’s fitness immediately after the final whistle of Liverpool’s 3–1 victory over Crystal Palace on April 25. “If I say there might be a chance [he may not play again], that is probably all the headlines, that there might be a chance, so we simply don’t know.

“But what we do know is that the season in four weeks is over. Not a lot of games are being played so we have to wait and see how his injury is, if he can return to play.

“What I do know about Mo is he has taken so good care of his body all these years that he will have the minimum time required to recover from an injury and let’s hope for the best, that he is available in the last part.”

The Times cited reports from Egypt predicting Salah could miss about a month, a timeline that would put his availability for the season-ending fixture against Brentford on May 24 in doubt. Liverpool effectively have Champions League qualification assured and no other competition to play for across their remaining fixtures. Salah also has a World Cup with Egypt to consider in the summer.

Remaining fixtures:
Sunday, May 3 — Man Utd, Old Trafford
Saturday, May 9 — Chelsea, Anfield
Sunday, May 17* — Aston Villa, Villa Park
Sunday, May 24 — Brentford, Anfield

Salah will almost certainly miss the trip to Manchester United. At the time of the announcement of his Liverpool exit in March, only seven United players had scored more goals at Old Trafford than him across the entire 2020s.

Mohamed Salah left Anfield applauding all four sides after appearing to pick up a hamstring problem during Liverpool’s meeting with Crystal Palace. He pulled up shortly before the hour mark and was forced off, trudging from the pitch to a chorus of concern from the crowd.

Immediate fears surrounded the severity of the issue and whether the injury could end Salah’s season, and even his Liverpool career. With roughly one month remaining of the campaign, the forward faces a clear race against time if he is to appear again in a Liverpool shirt.

Liverpool have just four fixtures remaining this season. A trip to Manchester United next Sunday already feels too soon for Salah if he has injured his hamstring, while the extent of the blow will determine whether a return is possible before the end of the campaign.

Chelsea travel to Anfield on May 9 in a tense fixture in the race for Europe, and that will be the penultimate chance for Salah to play in front of a home crowd in a Liverpool shirt. Arne Slot’s side end the season at home to Brentford and Liverpool will undoubtedly use that fixture to pay tribute to Salah. Long-standing left back Andy Robertson can also expect a hero’s farewell, but fans will hope to see the Egypt international on the pitch one final time.

Complicating the club situation is this summer’s World Cup. Salah will be keen to hurry back to action and bid farewell to his club, but he will not want to risk exacerbating a problem that could affect his involvement this summer in what is likely to be his final World Cup appearance.

The coming days and medical assessments will be decisive. Liverpool’s remaining schedule and the timing of recovery will decide whether supporters will witness Salah one more time at Anfield before the season closes.