Salah in Liverpool squad for Brighton match

Liverpool forward Mohamed Salah is in the squad for Saturday’s Premier League match against Brighton after positive talks with head coach Arne Slot on Friday.

It is understood the decision was made with Slot wanting to act in the best interests of the club, particularly with a number of players out through injury.

Issues still remain unresolved and those will continue to be tackled by Liverpool and Salah’s agent, Ramy Abbas, while the player is at the Africa Cup of Nations.

Salah, 33, was left out of the travelling squad for Liverpool’s Champions League trip to Inter Milan on Tuesday after claiming his relationship with Slot had broken down and that he had been “thrown under the bus”.

That outburst came at Elland Road following Liverpool’s 3-3 draw against Leeds, where the forward was on the bench for the third game in a row.

In that interview, Salah said that Saturday’s game would be an opportunity to say goodbye to Anfield and that he had invited his mother to attend.

In his pre-game news conference earlier on Friday, Slot said there were “no reasons to not want Mohamed Salah to stay” at the club.

Liverpool face Brighton at Anfield at 15:00 GMT on Saturday as they look to improve on two successive league draws.

Salah, who has scored 250 goals in 420 appearances for the Reds, has been an unused substitute in two of Liverpool’s past three Premier League games.

He last played in the 1-1 draw against Sunderland on 3 December as a substitute and his last start was on 26 November in the Champions League defeat by PSV Eindhoven.

With Cody Gakpo sidelined because of a muscle injury and Alexander Isak struggling with a knock, Liverpool are short of attacking options for Saturday.

“After the Sunderland game, there were a lot of conversations between his representatives and ours, between him and me,” Slot said.

Salah is set to depart for the Africa Cup of Nations on Monday and, depending on how far Egypt go in the competition, might not return to Merseyside until after the final on 18 January.

He could miss up to eight Liverpool games if Egypt reach the final in Morocco.