Egypt and Ghana are still in danger of suffering early Africa Cup of Nations exits after a 2-2 draw in their heavyweight group-stage encounter.

The biggest concern for Egypt will be an injury to Mohamed Salah, who came off in first-half stoppage-time and just before Mohamed Kudus opened the scoring. The West Ham forward got on the scoresheet again after the break, either side of equalisers from Omar Marmoush and Mostafa Mohamed.

Both sides went into the Group B match in need of a positive result, after Egypt opened their AFCON campaign with a draw against Mozambique and Ghana were beaten by Cape Verde.

Should Cape Verde beat Mozambique on Friday, they will be through to the knockout stages as group winners. Ghana must win their final group-stage match against Mozambique if they are to avoid a second-straight group-stage exit, while Egypt have left themselves work to do too in their final match against Cape Verde.

It was a fairly turgid 45 minutes as the two sides cancelled each other out, until a dramatic spell changed the complexion of the match heading into the break.

Salah went down off the ball in stoppage-time and it was immediately clear he could not continue, as he seemingly held his hamstring. The Liverpool forward handed over the captain's armband and was forced off in a major blow for Egypt.

And it got worse almost immediately, as Ghana took the lead. Kudus, back in the starting lineup after a hamstring injury of his own, rifled a strike into the net from just outside the area, with what was the first real bit of quality in the whole match.

Chances remained at a premium, until the Black Stars gifted Egypt an equaliser. Inaki Williams' awful back pass was pounced upon by Marmoush, who went round the goalkeeper and found the empty net.

That was swiftly forgotten about that, as Ghana edged back in front within seconds of the restart through a familiar source. Denis Odoi played the ball inside, Kudus was allowed to get a shot away and it found the far corner, with the help of a deflection.

The chaos continued, with a third goal in the space of five minutes. Again Ghana got themselves into trouble when Osman Bukari, just on for Williams, dribbled into his own box and was robbed by Trezeguet, who squared for Mohamed to finish.

A cooling break calmed things down, taking the sting out of the match as it finished level, a result that does little to ease the pressure on both sides.