Liverpool forward Mohamed Salah‘s dream season ended in anguish as he trudged off the pitch in tears following a challenge with Sergio Ramos just half an hour into the Champions League final. Given their respective goal records this season, The Liverpool talisman was seen leaving the pitch in tears, with Adam Lallana coming on in his place.
The injury means Salah was not able to add to his 44-goal haul for the campaign. It was billed as Salah vs Cristiano Ronaldo pre-match, not just for this game but potentially for the Ballon d’Or too
Sadly, we were denied that titanic match-up as Salah was forced off and it was impossible to not feel a pang of sadness for the Egyptian as his eyes flooded with tears.
Liverpool went on to lose the match 3-1 without their 44-goal talisman. Salah's shoulder ailment will perhaps rule him out of Russia 2018. He had been due to play at the tournament for Egypt against Russia in Group A on June 19.
Then, on 83 minutes, Bale struck from range and keeper Karius again was at fault, palming the ball into his own net and handing victory and a 13th title to Madrid.
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However, Liverpool’s medical team early prognosis is that it is a dislocated shoulder, which could well put his World Cup in jeopardy too. It was a similar scene to that which unfolded in the Stade de France in the Euro 2016 final when a distraught Ronaldo was forced from the pitch due to injury. Having been in the same position himself, Ronaldo went over to comfort Salah as he departed – a moment of sportsmanship that was overshadowed by the magnitude of the incident.
This isn’t how such a brilliant season was meant to end. Salah has obliterated goal scoring records, won individual accolades and captured the imagination of football fans everywhere. The Champions League final was his stage to complete his transformation from Chelsea reject to world-class superstar but he was denied his big moment. Ramos controversy Losing Salah in any circumstance would have been a blow to the Reds – indeed they looked shell-shocked until Sadio Mane’s second half goal jolted them back into life – but the manner in which he obtained the injury in the tussle with Ramos was highly controversial. With Salah seemingly going nowhere, Ramos got touch tight to him, before inter-locking his arm with his and then falling on top of his shoulder after the ball had rolled free.
The full force of Ramos’ bulky frame landed on Salah’s shoulder and it immediately looked like bad news when he received treatment for over a minute from Liverpool’s physios. Salah got back to his feet, but it proved to be more in hope than expectation. A few minutes later, he went down again, completely unchallenged and it was then that tears began to flow. Shortly afterwards, Twitter crashed. Once it belatedly came back to life, the top trend was not Salah, as you might expect, but instead Sergio Ramos. As great a player as Ramos undoubtedly is, he wasn’t trending for positive reasons. Between them Liverpool fans, Egypt fans and plenty of neutrals were piling in to demonise the Real skipper. One Liverpool fan account referred to Ramos as “scum”, one journalist described the challenge as “assault” and there was even worse waiting for him in Salah’s home nation…
Having said all this, Jürgen Klopp, Liverpool manager confirmed the shoulder injury Mohamed Salah sustained during Liverpool’s Champions League final defeat to Real Madrid is ‘serious’, “It’s a serious injury, a really serious one.” He is in the hospital for an X-ray. It’s either the collarbone or the shoulder itself. It doesn’t look good, that’s it.”
Football pundit such as Ferdinand agreed, saying: “It’s so unfortunate to see something like that in a game of this magnitude. It is not the way he would have wanted this end. “At the end of the day, it has changed the dynamic of the game. Liverpool looked a real threat when they turned over the ball, now Real Madrid are controlling things. “I thought it was very good defending from Ramos and I don’t think he intentionally did that. Another Pundit, Steven Gerrard also don’t agree that the injury was intentional, However. It was perhaps telling that Gary Lineker didn’t go over to the Liverpool legend for his opinion on the incident. Regardless of whether or not Ramos meant to injure Salah or not, it was a huge shame to see his campaign end in such fashion and so distraught that undoubtedly, he might not be able to lead The Pharaoh’s in Russia.