Mohamed Salah leaves the Egypt squad camp because of Hossam Hassan

The row inside the Egypt camp is escalating, just hours after a goalless draw against Angola opened their 2027 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying campaign. Talk of tension in the dressing room is growing.

Hossam Hassan took Mohamed Salah off in the 60th minute, then insisted the call was purely tactical. The captain, he stressed, was carrying no injury.

Egyptian journalist Ahmed Abdel Baset reports that Salah left the camp quietly, refusing to be drawn into any dispute. He described tension inside the dressing room and comments that stirred controversy after the Angola clash.

The EFA statement

The Football Association hit back with a statement of its own. It revealed that Hassan rested Salah for the South Sudan match because of the "artificial turf" pitch surface.

Salah and the technical staff had struck an agreement before the Angola game that he would sit out the South Sudan fixture, a decision taken to protect the player.

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