We all lose if Mo Salah misses the World Cup

Apart from anything else, they ruined his birthday.

The sight of unused substitute Mohamed Salah quivering on the edge of tears was, frankly, far too heavy a thing to be dealing with. It’s very early in the World Cup for all these complicated feelings. Your heart should be safe until at least the last 16. Not getting punched on day two.

Of course, Salah’s frustration was largely understandable. Uruguay are admirably total bastards, and their late winner was as sucky a sucker punch as you’ll ever see. But it was impossible not to wonder if there was something else going on. Why didn’t he play, when his manager said he was fine and the game was there to be won? Is he more injured than everybody’s been suggesting?

Is he actually going to play at all?

Because lets face it, it’ll be miserable if he doesn’t. Not just because he’s a joy to watch, though he’s definitely that. In fact he’s two joys, both at the same time: a quick, light-footed winger until he reaches the box, then a nerveless finisher once he’s there. It’s not really fair.

But that’s true whatever the tournament. He needs to play in the World Cup right now because World Cups are rare and special. (Particularly for Egypt, who have been to exactly two others: 1934 and 1990.) The intersection of this World Cup with this moment in Salah’s career — a moment of flourishing, a deep rich purple patch — is a precious coincidence that deserves to be maximized. There might be something special here. Yet we’ve already wasted one game, and we might only be getting three.

As a test of greatness, the World Cup is a strange thing. The standard isn’t as strong as the heights of the club game, yet it still retains a grip over the imagination, and how we think of greatness. Perhaps this persistence comes from the test it poses: what happens to great players when they’re out of context, at the mercy of whatever their nation can give them? We’ve seen Salah be brilliant, in a team built and bought to service that brilliance. But what is he without all that furious Kloppery around him?

Sat on a bench, apparently. Which is a crime against basic aesthetics, against inquiring footballing minds, and against all decency. Let’s just hope that Egypt coach Hector Cuper simply wanted to keep Salah away from the gristle and gnarl of the Uruguayan defense. They are, after all, the best birthday ruiners in the game. Better safe and sobbing than sorry and re-crocked.