Egypt captain Mohamed Salah has refused to speak about his injury ahead of Monday's Africa Cup of Nations clash with Cape Verde.

Salah played a key role in Egypt's opening game against Mozambique, providing the assist for his country's first goal before he scored a 97th-minute penalty to rescue a point.

However, the Liverpool forward was unable to play a decisive role in Thursday's 2-2 draw with Ghana after he was forced off in the closing stages of the first period.

While it was initially thought that Salah had sustained a hamstring issue, the Egyptian FA later confirmed that he had "a strain in the posterior muscle".

As a result, Salah has been ruled out of Egypt's final group game and a last-16 tie if his country are able to progress to the knockout rounds.

Speaking ahead of Monday's fixture against Cape Verde, Salah was keen to focus on the upcoming match rather than his injury issue.

Salah told reporters: "I am happy to be here, my injury is still there but the most important thing is to speak about the game. We have great players, a great team and we just need to fight and see what is going to happen.

"We have great players and this is the best 20 players in Egypt so we need to play our game with courage and confidence and I believe we are going to win the game.

"I would love to win it, absolutely. I've won everything possible [with Liverpool] but not this one, yet. I believe it will happen, everything I believe I achieve, so it will happen. Sooner or later it will happen."

Salah has played a key role for his country over the years, having scored 54 goals in 96 international appearances, including seven goals in 19 games at the Africa Cup of Nations.

Egypt boss Rui Vitoria will hope that other players can step up in Salah's absence, as the Pharaohs look to secure their place in the knockout rounds.

Having drawn their opening two matches, Rui Vitoria's side currently sit in second position and one point clear of Ghana and Mozambique.

Salah's club side were able to cope without his services in Sunday's Premier League outing at the Vitality Stadium, where Jurgen Klopp's Liverpool side cruised to a 4-0 victory over Bournemouth. body check tags ::