Will Mohamed Salah play for Liverpool this week? Why social media outburst has put Anfield send-off in doubt

Mohamed Salah has given his heart and soul to Liverpool over the past decade.

Since joining from AS Roma in the summer of 2017, Salah has become an all-time great not just in Liverpool history, but indeed in the history of the English top flight.

Yet with the Egypt international set to depart the club after nine years of service, his final season has proven difficult, as Salah's performances have been a struggle and his subsequent lack of playing time not well-received by the player.

As his final match with Liverpool draws nearer, set to finish his Reds career with a May 24 home Premier League game against Brentford, more fiery comments from Salah on social media have caused turmoil and forced some prominent individuals to call for him to be sat on the bench as his time on Merseyside comes to an end.

Will Mohamed Salah play for Liverpool in Premier League finale?

Despite recent outcry, it's unlikely that Salah will be dropped for his Liverpool send-off at Anfield.

Even as Salah has created a bit of an uproar with his recent social media post seemingly criticising the club's direction in his final season, dropping him from the lineup in his final Liverpool match would create a needless firestorm and rob a club icon of his chance to say goodbye after nearly a decade of service to the Merseyside giants.

Salah's final season at Liverpool has been fraught with controversy and verbal spats, but he only gets one opportunity to say goodbye, and snatching that from him after all he's given to this club would be exceedingly harsh and sour what should be a long-lasting relationship between club and legendary player.

There's no need to create years of animosity between the parties for something relatively minor in contrast.

Phil Noble/Reuters via Imagn Images

Wayne Rooney says Salah should be dropped

Manchester United great Wayne Rooney, who has experience as a manager trying to foster a positive and cohesive atmosphere inside a dressing room, believes Liverpool should take harsh action on Salah for his antagonistic post.

"At the end of the day, Arne Slot is the manager of Liverpool," Rooney said. "He [Salah] has almost just dropped the grenade and said he doesn't trust and believe in Arne Slot, and almost thrown his teammates -- who are going to be there next season -- and let them have to deal with that as well and put them into a position."

"Salah has scored some 191 goals in his Premier League tenure -- but just seven this term, and is set to return his lowest top flight output in a Liverpool shirt.

"I think time catches [Salah] ... He's had a very poor season," Rooney said. "I think he can have these issues inside the club.

"So I think he's been very selfish in what he's done in the two occasions. It's a shame, and fans will be on his side, but I think when you look deeper into it -- and having been in a dressing room in a similar situation to that as well -- Mo Salah knows exactly what he's doing, you've seen something a little bit when Ronaldo left Man United the second time.

"I've question Arne Slot as well, but that's your manager. You can't publicly disrespect him twice the way he has and get away with it. If I was Arne Slot, I'd have to pull rank and just say, listen -- you're not coming anywhere near the place on Saturday, whether you like it or not.

"I really doubt he will do it [drop Salah], but I think he should."

Jamie Carragher calls Salah post "selfish"

While not going so far as to say he should be dropped from the team, former Liverpool player and current Sky Sports pundit Jamie Carragher believed what Salah put on social media was "selfish" when the finish to the season should be about Liverpool.

"I wasn’t surprised," Carragher said. "I told everybody at Sky behind the scenes, my friends who were Liverpool fans, I said Salah...something else will come before the end of the season. He will drop another bomb. A little bit like what Ronaldo did on the way out of Manchester United.

"I thought it may come after the end of the season when he sort of moved on, but no.

"On this show, less than two years ago, I called him selfish for doing an interview and that rings true again. Liverpool have a really important week this week, still not qualified for the Champions League and it should be about Liverpool FC, not Salah FC, but unfortunately it’s going to be about Mohamed Salah."

What did Mo Salah say on social media?

On May 16, one day after a 4-2 defeat to Aston Villa which dropped them to fifth in the Premier League standings after the penultimate match of the 2025/26 season, Mo Salah dropped a long and aggressive social media post that felt like a thinly veiled shot at manager Arne Slot and the leadership of the club.

Salah posted a photo of himself in a Liverpool shirt on his Instagram, along with the following caption:

The post was "liked" by other Liverpool players such as Hugo Ekitike, Jeremie Frimpong, Dominik Szoboszlai, Milos Kerkez, Curtis Jones, Andy Robertson, and Giovanni Leoni as well as Salah's former team-mates Jordan Henderson and Harvey Elliott.

This comes a few short months after Salah threw Slot and other Liverpool decision-makers under the bus back in December amid frustrations about his playing time.

The Egypt international gave an extraordinary, unprompted diatribe to reporters after being an unusued substitute to the 3-3 draw at Leeds in December, questioning the club's leadership and communication with the players. The 33-year-old complained about his lack of playing time, said he and Slot "don't have any relationship," and claimed that the club failed to "keep the promises" he had been given.