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Salah 'destroying his Liverpool legacy', says Rooney

December 09, 2025 00:00:00


Liverpool's Egyptian striker Mohamed Salah (C) attends a team training session at their training ground in Kirkby, Liverpool, north-west England on Monday, on the eve of their UEFA Champions League, league phase football match against Inter Milan in Milan-AFP

LONDON, Dec 08 (AFP): Mohamed Salah is "absolutely destroying his Liverpool legacy" following an extraordinary outburst at manager Arne Slot, according to Wayne Rooney.

The Egypt forward said on Saturday he felt like he had been "thrown under the bus" by Liverpool and that he no longer had a relationship with Slot after he was left on the bench for the third consecutive game in a 3-3 draw at Leeds and not even introduced as a substitute.

After next weekend's home match against Brighton, Salah is set to depart for the Africa Cup of Nations and hinted that could be his final appearance in a Liverpool shirt should he be selected.

Salah, however, did take part in Liverpool's scheduled training session on Monday ahead of Tuesday's Champions League tie at Inter Milan.

Former Manchester United and England striker Rooney believes Slot must now demonstrate he is in charge at Anfield by leaving Salah out completely from the trip to Italy.

"Arne Slot has to show his authority and pull him in and say 'you are not travelling with the team, what you said is not acceptable'," said Rooney in his latest BBC podcast.

"Take yourself off to AFCON (the Africa Cup of Nations) and let everything calm down. If I was him there would be no way he would be in the team."

Rooney added: "He (Salah) is absolutely destroying his legacy at Liverpool. It would be sad for him to throw it all away. He's gone about it all wrong."

The 33-year-old Salah is Liverpool's third highest goalscorer of all time with 250 goals in 420 appearances for the club.

But Salah has been a shadow of his former self during Liverpool's struggles this season -- the club are now ninth in the table -- with a mere four goals in 13 Premier League appearances.


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