After a contentious FIFA decision, Mohamed Salah may be expected to miss ten matches for Liverpool.

After a contentious FIFA decision, Mohamed Salah may be expected to miss ten matches for Liverpool. Arne Slot will still need to find a replacement for the

Egyptian at some point next season, despite the fact that Mohamed Salah may have signed a new two-year contract with Liverpool, committing his destiny to the Reds until 2027. Last time out, the forward established a new record for a 38-game campaign by assisting Luis Diaz in opening the scoring against West Ham United,

which was his 45th goal contribution of the Premier League season. Salah is unlikely to surpass Erling Haaland’s Premier League record of 36 goals in a single season with six games remaining; however, he requires only two assists to equal the joint-record of Thierry Henry and Kevin De Bruyne. In the interim, he is on track to secure the Golden Boot for a joint-record fourth time. After signing a new contract with Liverpool,

Slot has already expressed his conviction that the forward will continue to perform at this level throughout the upcoming season and beyond.This year, Salah has been an omnipresent figure in the Premier League, starting all 32 of their matches and only failing to appear for more than 80 minutes once. He also started all but one of the Reds’ 10 Champions League matches, as well as the League Cup final and both legs of the corresponding semi-final.

As a result, Salah’s significance and influence have been evident, resulting in the deprivation of game time for players such as Federico Chiesa and Harvey Elliott, who are now relegated to the periphery of Slot’s squad. This is because the Africa Cup of Nations has been postponed from the summer of 2025 to the middle of the following season. This decision was made in response to the inaugural edition of FIFA’s

controversial expanded Club World Cup, which will be held in the United States in June and July. The scheduling of AFCON was also further complicated by the inclusion of two additional match days in the Champions League at the end of January. In the past, AFCON was held in January and February during the mid-season, but the most recent edition will commence on December 21 in Morocco and conclude on January 18.

However, the Liverpool head coach will require a replacement for the 32-year-old ahead of the January transfer window due to circumstances beyond his control, as the forward will be unable to replicate such performances next season.The 2025/26 Premier League season is scheduled to commence on Saturday, August 16, and conclude with the final match round on Sunday, May 24, 2026. It has been verified that there will be no fixture on Christmas Eve.

However, the fixture schedule has not been disclosed, and it will not be entirely obvious how many matches participating players will miss until the Premier League fixture release day on Wednesday, June 18. Nevertheless, AFCON would have been in conflict with eight Liverpool matches, including six Premier League games, if the schedule from this season were used as a guide.