Arne Slot gets his wish as Mo Salah '90%' certain to be at Liverpool for season kick-off

Arne Slot looks virtually certain to get positive news soon with Mo Salah looking very likely to be at Liverpool for the season kick-off.

The Liverpool Echo reports that Mohamed Salah is looking increasingly unlikely to be with Egypt for the Olympics later this year. The forward is certainly wanted by his country for the tournament but they require permission to call him up.

And it appears they won't get it. The Echo refers to a source with the Egyptian camp that says it's now '90% sure' that Salah won't be at the Olympics.

The football tournament starts on July 24th and runs through August 9th, ripping players away from their clubs for the end of pre-season. Liverpool's first game of the Premier League season is just eight days later, meaning any player at the tournament who goes far would almost certainly miss the kick-off once they've returned from a post-tournament break.

Salah, however, will likely miss the Olympics and remain with Liverpool. This is despite talk that he'd be selected as their flag-bearer for the opening ceremony, too.

Boost for Arne Slot

It's unquestionably a massive boost for Arne Slot, who can feel almost certain that he'll have one of the most important players on the books with him for pre-season. While that pre-season won't be perfect, given the two international tournaments, this makes things a lot easier.

Salah's role under Slot will be one of the most interesting to see, too. He exploded from a really good player into one of the world's best under Jurgen Klopp, meshing with the gameplan perfectly.

Now things will change, even just slightly, and it remains to be seen if Salah can replicate his performances under a new manager. Of course, everyone will back him to do just that, especially after a proper pre-season under the new head coach.