• Liverpool manager: ‘There’s nothing for me to talk about’

• Slot refuses to divulge details of talks with Salah

Arne Slot claimed he had no outstanding issues with Mohamed Salah and would see the Egypt international after the Africa Cup of Nations following the forward’s positive return for Liverpool against Brighton.

Salah was reintroduced to the Liverpool side as a 26th-minute substitute having been omitted from the Champions League win at Inter over the incendiary interview he gave at Elland Road last Saturday. Slot refused to divulge details of the conversation that led to Salah being restored to the squad on Friday but insisted that, as far as he was concerned, the matter was resolved. Talks are expected, however, between the Liverpool hierarchy and Salah’s representative while the forward is away on Afcon duty.

• Egyptian’s exile ends following talks with Arne Slot

• Unknown if he apologised to Liverpool’s head coach

Mohamed Salah will be back in Liverpool’s squad for Saturday’s Premier League home game against Brighton following talks with Arne Slot.

Slot revealed on Friday morning that Salah’s involvement against Brighton rested on the outcome of a conversation he would have with the forward at the club’s training ground later in the day. Details of their conversation remain private, so it is unknown whether Salah apologised to Liverpool’s head coach for the highly-critical interview he gave at Leeds last Saturday, but the 33-year-old has been included in the squad for the match at Anfield.

• ‘It’s going to be the club’s and his decision,’ midfielder says

• Curtis Jones insists squad firmly behind Arne Slot

Dominik Szoboszlai has said the Liverpool dressing room will have no influence over Mohamed Salah’s next move because only the player and the club can decide how their standoff ends.

Salah missed Liverpool’s valuable Champions League win at Inter on Tuesday having been left out of Arne Slot’s squad in response to his highly critical interview at Leeds. The 33-year-old could also be absent when Liverpool host Brighton on Saturday. He is due to report for Africa Cup of Nations duty with Egypt on Monday.

• ‘We couldn’t have asked for more,’ says manager

• Slot skirts around the Mohamed Salah issue

Arne Slot said Liverpool’s players gave everything he could have asked after they put Mohamed Salah’s absence aside to inflict a first European home defeat on Inter in more than three years.

The Liverpool head coach conceded that Dominik Szoboszlai’s decisive 88th-minute penalty – awarded for a shirt pull by Alessandro Bastoni on Florian Wirtz – would probably not have been given in the Premier League. But following the difficulties caused by Salah’s incendiary interview at Leeds on Saturday, Slot was thrilled with the response of his team at San Siro.

First the Liverpool hierarchy protected Arne Slot’s authority by axing Mohamed Salah from a daunting Champions League assignment in Milan. The Liverpool team then followed suit by inflicting Inter’s first European home defeat since September 2022. A brooding superstar with a bruised ego watched from afar while Liverpool fans serenaded Slot at San Siro.

Salah might well have taken the decisive 88th-minute penalty had he not talked himself out of the trip to San Siro, another legend of the game that is showing its age. Instead it fell to Dominik Szoboszlai, the friend Salah had in effect argued should not be playing on the right ahead of him, to deliver a precious victory for Slot after Alessandro Bastoni had been penalised for pulling Florian Wirtz’s shirt in the box.