Liverpool are expected to avoid losing Mohamed Salah for three crucial games prior to the Africa Cup of Nations despite Egypt arranging a pre-tournament training camp.

Salah is set to depart for AFCON in mid-December, with Liverpool’s No. 11 at risk of missing up to seven games depending on Egypt’s success.

Despite his struggle for form in recent weeks it will undoubtedly be a blow for the Premier League champions, with the tournament running through the festive period and into the New Year.

But according to win winWrong is not likely to join up with the Egypt squad for their training camp ahead of AFCON.

Egypt have arranged a friendly against Nigeria on December 14 and head coach Hossam Hassan is hoping to have all of his players involved.

Salah already set to miss up to 7 games

It is even explained that players can be called up as early as December 7, which if that was the case could see Salah miss the clashes with Leeds (Dec 6), Inter Milan (Dec 9) and Brighton (Dec 13) factoring in travel.

But winwin claims that both Salah and Man City‘s Omar Marmoush are not expected to join up with the Egypt squad until the eve of the tournament.

Salah should be available for the visit of Brighton on December 13 before flying out to Egypt to begin preparations for AFCON.

The 33-year-old is still set to miss Liverpool’s meetings with Tottenham (Dec 20), Wolves (Dec 27) and Leeds (Dec 30) at the very least, with progress to the latter stages of AFCON ruling him out for as many as four more games.

If Egypt reach the final on January 18, Salah would also be unavailable to play Fulham (Jan 3), Arsenal (Jan 7) and Burnley (Jan 17) as well as the FA Cup third round on the weekend of January 10/11.

Though that situation remains hypothetical at this stage, any participation in the knockout rounds will further impact his season at Liverpool.

He could even realistically miss the penultimate Champions League league phase game against Marseille (Jan 21) if Egypt were to go all the way in Morocco.

Nevertheless, his planned absence from the start of Egypt’s warmup for AFCON can be considered a positive for Liverpool, who will hope to maximise Salah’s form in the lead up to the tournament.

The Egypt captain scored his first goal in seven games in last weekend’s 3-2 defeat at Brentfordwith that strike subsequently nominated for the Premier League Goal of the Month award for October.