Mo Salah: Dejan Lovren defends old Liverpool mate after bizarre 'world class' dig

Former Liverpool defender Dejan Lovren rushed to the defence of his former teammate and friend Mo Salah after a particularly strange attack online.

Lovren and Salah were well known to have enjoyed something of a bromance during their time together on Anfield, while the pair have apparently remained bezzies even after the Croatian left the club in 2020.

The duo reunited during a break in pre-season last summer, with Lovren captioning a post of them hugging:“After three long years not seeing each other, finally we found each other again.”

While they might not get the chance to physically spend much time together these days, Lovren still has his old mate's back, hitting back at some quotes from former Everton front man Yakubu.

An Instagram post from FootyEmporium recirculated quotes attributed to the ex-Nigeria international which made the bold claim: "Salah is not world class in my opinion. He is not good with the ball. Greatest African players in Premier League are Okocha, Drogba, Kanu, Yaya Toure, Adebayor and Sadio Mane."

Commenting on the post, Lovren replied: "Clearly he tried some new drinks."

Did Yakubu really slam Salah?

While it's touching that Lovren is so quick to jump in to bat for Salah against any social media slam, the quotes are almost certainly fake news.

Outlets reporting "Yakubu's" attention-grabbing words cite an interview he did with TalkSPORT back in February. However, there is no evidence of that interview online, while most reporting of the quotes cites second-hand sources only.

Other interviews Yakubu has given in the past paint a very different picture of his opinion of Liverpool's No. 11.

In January, he told the Mirror: "Salah has won African Footballer of the Year twice. He is just so good. He's still one of the top legends in Africa, not only now but of all-time.

"He's just so consistent for Liverpool and is scoring so many goals. Egypt are strong and they also have many other great players."

While the inflammatory quotes are almost certainly fake, anyone who does actually believe the actual assertion is easily disproved.

Salah is the top-scoring African in Premier League history, a Premier League winner, a Champions League winner and the only player in Liverpool's history to have scored 20+ goals in seven consecutive seasons.

He has three Golden Boots, two PFA Player of the Year awards and has twice been named African Footballer of the Year.

Or to put it more simply, if anyone really doesn't think Salah is world class at this stage, they've clearly been trying too many new drinks.