Gary Neville has shared ‘I am sad’ two Liverpool legends – Sadio Mane and Mo Salah – are not at the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, as he told ITV Sport.
For Liverpool’s flyer on the right, his Egypt side didn’t qualify for football’s biggest tournament because of a certain Senegal.
Not only did Sadio Mane, now at Bayern Munich, guide his nation to the Africa Cup of Nations at the start of the year against Egypt, but he also booked their ticket to Qatar for the World Cup.
But just like Karim Benzema, Reece James and Paul Pogba, to name a few, Mane suffered an injury that has resulted in him having to watch from home for the World Cup.
Whoever you support, everyone wants the world’s best stars on the biggest stage, but that’s not the case here, as Neville expressed his hurt at that matter involving Mane and Salah.
“Massive lose in Mane (for Senegal),” said Neville. “I am sad that Mane’s not here. I really am. I feel like a tournament without him, even Salah, to be fair, from that point of view.
“You want to see the best players in the world in the tournament.”
ONE MORE CHANCE FOR SALAH AND MANE
Both are 30, and at the peak of their powers, but not being able to perform on the biggest stage, which is a crying shame.
But, with the next World Cup in the USA, there is no reason why the duo still can’t be cooking and making it a possibility that they play on that career-defining stage.
First of all, they need to qualify, then hope that they remain injury-free, else, you don’t want to be that player that is part of a list of ‘greatest players never to have played at a World Cup’.
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