Liverpool striker Mohamed Salah likely to miss start of 2020-21 Premier League season

Liverpool FC might need to play without Mohamed Salah during the starting phase of the Premier League season in 2020-21.

Salah's national team, Egypt, has qualified for next year's Olympic Games to be held in Tokyo. The 2020 Olympics will be organised between July 22 and August 8.

Salah is found eligible to play and if the Egyptian icon chooses to don his national outfit in the Olympics, then he would miss the English side's pre-season campaign along with the beginning of their domestic season.

Egypt secured a spot at the Tokyo Olympics after their youth team reached the final of the U-23 African Cup of Nations. Getting to the final meant that the land of the pharaohs will now compete in the Olympics. They are granted the permission to select no more than three players above the age of 23 in their team.

Now the question remains, if the Egyptian team can convince Salah. However, the Reds' supporters would not want Salah to remain absent from his club duties in the Premier League. There's one good news for Liverpool fans: Salah doesn't have a good relationship with his national team.

The relationship between the player and the Egyptian national side is somewhat complicated. Therefore, critics think it will be a difficult job for them to convince Salah. Previously, he had publicly complained about the ill-treatment that he received from his national side.

He was involved in a row with the Egyptian FA. This mainly happened because the association didn't vote for him at FIFA's The Best awards held in September.

Following the event, Salah gave hints of withdrawal from his national side by removing all references to the Egyptian national team from his social media profiles.

However, the Liverpool forward didn't hesitate to congratulate the Egyptian Under-23 side after they qualified for the Olympic Games.

Former Stoke footballer Ramdan Rosbi, who also featured in the Under-23s, mentioned that Salah had been in touch with him. However, he refused to discuss the possibility of Salah's involvement in next year's Olympics.

According to Daily Mail, Rosbi said, "Salah called me by phone yesterday and congratulated us on the qualification for which I thank him very much. I also think it's so early to talk about the players who will join us in Tokyo, we have 21 fighters in our squad [at the Under-23 Africa Cup of Nations] and they have done amazing job in the tournament. Everyone should give them the credit then we can talk about who will join us there."