Egypt and Liverpool forward Mohamed Salah is oozing with confidence ahead of their World Cup opener against Uruguay that he will be fit enough to take part in the match set for next Friday in Yekaterinburg, Spanish newspaper Marca reported on Saturday.
Salah went off with a shoulder injury in the first half when Liverpool went down 3-1 to Real Madrid in last month’s Champions League final but he expects to play some part in Egypt’s first Group A fixture in Russia.
“Now I’m feeling better,” Salah told the Spanish daily. “I’m hopeful of being able to play in our first game, but this will depend on how I feel when the day comes around.”
Salah played a key role in ensuring Egypt secured a place in Russia after scoring the penalty that earned his country entry to their first World Cup in 28 years and the 25-year-old forward insists they are not in Russia to make up the numbers.
“We’ve got a great team and a great coach. We want to get into the next round and do things well there,” he added.
“We’re strong as a group, we all have the same objective, which is to win and that’s the most important thing. We don’t just have one strong point, but the main thing is we play together as a group.
“The pressure was to qualify for the World Cup. Of course, you can then say ‘right, we’ve got there, that’s that’, but for me it’s not like that. We want to make history and achieve something different.
“It’s not a simple case of going, playing three games and thank you very much. That’s not going through my head.”
Egypt is in Group A together with Uruguay, Saudi Arabia and hosts Russia.
