YEKATERINBURG: Egypt forward Mohamed Salah has recovered from a shoulder injury and is almost 100 percent certain to play in their World Cup opener against Uruguay, coach Hector Cuper said on Thursday, ending weeks of suspense about the fitness of his most dangerous striker.

Cuper went further by predicting on the eve of the match that Salah could emerge as one of the tournament’s most prolific goalscorers.

“Mo is doing very well indeed. He’s recovered very, very quickly — we’ve paid a lot of attention to him,” the veteran coach told a news conference before the squad’s last training session ahead of Friday’s match.

“I can almost assure you 100 percent that he will play, save unforeseen circumstances at the very last minute.”

Salah, who scored 44 goals for Liverpool last season, injured shoulder ligaments in the Champions League final defeat by Real Madrid on May 26 and has not played since, keeping fans in suspense before Egypt’s first World Cup finals in 28 years.

Egypt are back in the World Cup finals for the first time since 1990 and their progress to the last 16 could hinge on Salah enjoying the form that saw him voted England’s Player of the Year by his fellow professionals.

Uruguay defender Diego Godin, who plays in Spain for Atletico Madrid, did not take kindly to an “inopportune” question in a subsequent press conference asking if he intended to follow Ramos in giving Salah some roughhouse treatment.

Uruguay’s veteran coach Oscar Tabarez, who is likely to field a fearsome front two of Luis Suarez and Edinson Cavani, said he hoped Salah is fit.

“I will be very happy for him if he plays in a dream match for him, the injury was a great shame and we all felt great solidarity for him,” said the 71-year-old.-

The speculation around Salah has taken the spotlight away from the return to the World Cup arena of Uruguay’s own talisman, Suarez, whose two previous appearances at the finals have ensured him a legacy of folly.

“I want there to be the possibility of this being my World Cup, after having left in the way I did in 2014,” he said in a recent radio interview.

Now 31, and Uruguay’s leading goal scorer, Suarez was the catalyst for his country’s unlikely march to the semi-finals in 2010.

However, he earned notoriety in their controversial quarter-final victory, when he handled the ball on the goal line to deny opponents Ghana a place in the last four instead.

Suarez was hailed a self-sacrificing hero back home for the calculated decision, for which he was sent off and suspended, but derided everywhere else for an act of callous gamesmanship.

In Brazil four years ago, he bit Italian defender Giorgio Chiellini in the closing stage of Uruguay’s last group game and was subsequently slapped with a record nine-match ban from competitive internationals.

But Suarez has continued to be key for his country and is back with a chance to redeem himself in a strong Uruguay side, still with the core of the squad that finished fourth in South Africa eight years ago.

Uruguay finished second in the South American qualifying and are considered favourites to top Group ‘A’, despite the presence of hosts Russia.

Published in Dawn, June 15th, 2018