Michael Owen has claimed Mohamed Salah made it clear that something wasn’t quite right even before he scored Liverpool ’s second goal against Brighton.
The Reds piled the pressure back on leaders Manchester City, winning Saturday’s early kick-off 2-0 virtue of goals from Luis Diaz and Salah.
It cut the gap at the top back to three points ahead of the final 10 games of the campaign.
But the victory on the south coast was somewhat marred after Salah was forced to be withdrawn after picking up a knock to his foot.
Jurgen Klopp has moved to quash any fears over a long-term absence, but he is sure to be somewhat of a doubt for Wednesday night’s game with Arsenal.
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And Owen, who was covering the game for Premier League Productions, has said he spotted Salah complaining about an injury before he smashed home the decisive penalty.
The Egyptian scored his spot-kick, his 20th Premier League goal of the season, just after the hour mark and was then substituted off just four minutes later.
“After the penalty, he is telling Jordan Henderson that he has got a problem here,” Owen explained.. “So he has actually smacked that ball with that foot (he has injured) into the back of the net.
“So, it can’t be too bad and he has walked off. But enough for him to go off because someone like Salah doesn’t go off, especially when there are goals available.”
The former Liverpool striker believes that it’s vital Salah is fit for midweek, with Arsenal representing one of the true tests remaining on their fixture list.
Owen added: “It would be a massive blow if he was missing any of the games. Of course, Arsenal next, with the way Arsenal are playing that’s going to be a tough one and they will want him fit for that
“But Arsenal away, it’s one of the biggies. This is one of the occasions where Liverpool could drop points, so they would want him fit for that one.
“It will be critical how he is feeling in the morning because some of these injuries get way worse overnight, then they get better.
“You could see him mouth at Jurgen Klopp. Hopefully, it’s not too bad, he has walked off.”
Speaking about his talisman’s injury, Klopp suggested that while something wasn’t “100 per-cent right” further tests would be needed to gather a full prognosis.
"We will see. He thinks it's not serious but we will see when he is sitting down,” Klopp said shortly after the full-time whistle.
"Something is not 100 per-cent right. We think it was the situation before when he hit the ball and got blocked, he went to shoot and got blocked.
"The foot got slightly over-stretched. We'll see."
