Afcon 2023: Salah believes he will win an Afcon with Egypt

“We were unlucky at the last one and also in Gabon. The players are very motivated to win the tournament. We all want to win it.”

Rui Vitoria’s team needed Salah’s injury-time penalty to draw 2-2 with Mozambique in their first match, and then had to come from behind twice to hold Ghana after Salah went off injured.

If they beat Cape Verde, who have already secured first place in Group B, Egypt will advance to a last-16 tie in San-Pedro on 28 January.

Salah has already been ruled out of that game too, and is only expected to return for a quarter-final on 2 or 3 February, should Egypt make it that far.

“My injury is still there but the most important thing now is to speak about the game,” Salah said.

“At the end of the day we are not doing great at the moment but we have a fantastic team and a great coach, so we just need to stay focused.

“I believe that with hard work everything is possible, so we just need to win one game to qualify and we go from there.

“We are very positive, we have great players and a great team, and we just need to fight and see what will happen.”