Mo Salah to join up with Egypt early: When Liverpool will lose him

Mo Salah is now expected to join up with Egypt early ahead of the Africa Cup of Nations. Here's when Liverpool will lose him.

Liverpool know they'll lose Mo Salah for a period of the season in January. The Africa Cup of Nations will pull him away as he attempts to finally lift the trophy with Egypt.

But there's been a bit of a mystery around exactly when he'd depart. AFCON starts on January 13th, meaning he technically doesn't need to join up with Egypt until the days running up to that date.

Liverpool face Arsenal at Anfield in the FA Cup 3rd Round on January 7th - the hope was that Salah would still be around for that. It seems, however, that he won't be.

The Daily Mail's Lewis Steele reports that Egypt will call up Salah early. He'll now head to his national side after Liverpool's New Year's Day fixture against Newcastle, ruling him out of that FA Cup tie.

What games could Mo Salah miss?

Salah is set to miss that Newcastle game, then, and he'll certainly be gone until the end of the Group Stage. That concludes for Egypt on January 22nd.

At the bare minimum, Salah will also miss the first leg of the Carabao Cup semi-final against Fulham on the 10th and the Premier League meeting with Bournemouth on the 21st.

Every expectation is that Egypt will get out of their group. That gives them a fixture on either the 28th or 29th of January, so Salah would again be missing for the other leg of the Carabao Cup tie. He'd also miss a potential FA Cup Fourth-Round tie should the Reds get past the Gunners.

Make the Quarter-finals and Salah misses Liverpool vs Chelsea on January 31st. The Semi-Finals and he's out of Arsenal vs Liverpool on February 4th. A run to the final would keep Salah away from Liverpool vs Burnley on February 10th.

And so after the Newcastle game, the next fixture in which Liverpool can guarantee Salah's participation is the trip to Brentford on February 17th.