Liverpool forward Mohamed Salah is still to pen new terms at Anfield that will keep him on Merseyside beyond the summer. But if he does stay with the Reds, he will be missing a vital chunk of next season because of AFCON.

The draw for the group stage of the 2025 edition of the tournament has now been made. Egypt and Salah are in Group B alongside South Africa, Angola and Zimbabwe for the competition which will be held in Morocco.

It was already known when the next AFCON would be taking place: between 21 December 2025 and 18 January 2026. For countries with a winter break, that won't be a big issue, but for the Premier League, it is often the most hectic time in the calendar.

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In the equivalent period this year, Liverpool played eight times including in the FA Cup and Carabao Cup. But this year the festive schedule was less crammed than usual — it could easily be more matches next time around.

At the last AFCON, which took place around a year ago, Salah missed only five Liverpool games. However, he picked up an injury with Egypt and missed a further seven matches, returning as a shadow of the player he was before he left.

Of course, all of this will be a problem for Salah's next club to solve unless he signs a contract extension. He has made it pretty clear that he wants to stay with Liverpool but so far, there has been no breakthrough in negotiations with his representatives and the Reds.

Liverpool.com says: While it will be annoying to lose Salah for a period next season if he does stay, that doesn't change the fact that a new contract is vital (and it isn't like Liverpool won't have known about that consideration). The Reds have enough options to cope for a short time without him, but shouldn't be thinking about moving on from him permanently any time soon.