Hassan injury riddle as he starts for Egypt despite fake injury claim
Despite reports coming from The Scottish Sun yesterday of Haissem Hassan being ruled out of the Egyptian national squad through an ‘intense injury’ the 24 year old remarkably played 60 minutes for the his nation in Friday’s AFCON qualifier against Angola.
The story posted on The Scottish Sun has now been removed.
Egypt manager Hossam Hassan had earlier being reported to indicated that the Celtic winger was unavailable for selection. The manager was quoted as saying: “Haissem Hassan is receiving intensive treatment just now. But I am not worried about his absence because we have a lot of excellent players to replace him.
“Haissem is a vital technical asset for our long-term vision, but his recent injury made it impossible for him to join us for this camp.”
However the Egyptian manager’s quotes apparently were lost in translation or became the victim of tabloid skullduggery in the search for clicks.
A more accurate translation looks more like this: “Today, for example, Haissem Hassan is coming. You surely followed him in the last match at Celtic, he was injured.
“So we’re trying to have quick treatment and he might not start. Maybe. Until today, he is still doing sessions with the medical staff, intensively, in the hope that, god willing, he will be available. If he isn’t, I won’t worry. This is the Egypt national team.”
So despite these inaccurate and misleading claims the 24-year-old started the game which finished 0-0 in attack alongside former Liverpool star Mo Salah. Both players were substituted after playing around an hour in the match that ended 0-0.
Egypt are due face South Sudan and Celtic will be keeping a keen eye on the fitness of Hassan. His fitness will be closely monitored, especially given Celtic’s current situation with wingers.
However, another Celtic winger, Yang, recently revealed he is struggling with a hamstring problem after missing South Korea’s Asian Games quarter-final win over Vietnam.
He said after the match: “I have a minor injury to my hamstring. Right now, I am preparing with the goal of reaching the semi-finals and the finals.
“I was selected as a wild card, but since I haven’t been in good physical condition recently and now I’m on top of that with an injury, I feel really sorry for my teammates. I also feel like I’m not being of any help.”
It’s good to see that Hassan isn’t injured despite being led to believe otherwise. But the Yang situation is a bit of a worry, especially since how valuable he’s been to the side since the start of the campaign.
