Mohamed Salah hits back at Sergio Ramos over injection claims

Liverpool star Mohamed Salah has laughed off Sergio Ramos’ suggestion that he could have played on in the Champions League final. Salah was forced off with a shoulder injury after a tussle with Ramos in the 30th minute and Real Madrid went on to win 3-1 as Zinedine Zidane’s men secured the trophy a the third consecutive season. 

The forward left the field in tears and is a serious doubt for Egypt’s opening World Cup match with Uruguay, but Ramos claimed that his counterpart could have managed the full 90 minutes in Kiev with an injection. ‘Bloody hell, they have given this Salah thing a lot of attention,’ the Spaniard told AS earlier this week.

‘I didn’t want to speak because everything is magnified. I see the play well, he grabs my arm first and I fell to the other side, the injury happened to the other arm and they said that I gave him a judo hold. After that the goalkeeper said I dazed him with a clash. ‘I spoke with Salah through messages, he was quite good. He could have played if he got an injection for the second half, I have done it sometimes but when Ramos does something like this, it sticks a little bit more.’

Ramos insinuated that Salah’s injury was his own fault as it was the Egyptian who grabbed his arm first. ‘It’s funny…’ Salah told Marca. Asked if he could have played on if he had an injection, Salah replied: ‘My comment is that it’s always okay when the one who made you cry first, then makes you laugh. ‘Maybe he could also tell me if I’m going to be ready for the World Cup?’ Salah denied Ramos’ claim that he was ‘okay’ following their conversation on the incident. He responded: ‘He sent me a message, but I never told him it was “okay.”‘

Salah is hopeful that he will be ready to face Uruguay on June 15 for the start of Egypt’s ‘special’ World Cup campaign. ‘Now I’m better. I hope to play the first game against Uruguay, but that will depend on how I feel when it approaches,’ he said. ‘It’s the first time in 28 years that we qualified… It was not normal because we won the African Cup seven times, and we were champions in 2006, 2008 and 2010.