Mohamed Salah was excluded from the Egyptian national team before facing Guinea Bissau

The technical staff of the Egyptian national team, led by Captain Hossam Hassan, took the decision to rest the national team’s star, Mohamed Salah, and not to participate in the match against Guinea-Bissau, scheduled to be held on Sunday evening at Cairo International Stadium, within the final round of the African qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup finals.

The decision to rest Salah came after the Egyptian national team officially secured qualification to the World Cup, following its victory over Djibouti by 3-0 in the match held at Al-Arabi Zaouli Stadium in Casablanca.

The Egyptian national team leads its group standings with 23 points, ahead of second-placed Burkina Faso with 18 points, which made the technical staff prefer to give some of the basic elements a rest before the next stage of preparation.

It is expected that the duo Hamdi Fathi and Marwan Attia will also be absent from the match with Guinea Bissau due to suspension, making Mohamed Salah the third absent from the ranks of the Pharaohs in the final confrontation in the qualifiers.