Mohamed Salah is convinced of winning the Africa Cup of Nations with Egypt “sooner or later”.
The Liverpool forward is set to miss his country’s next two games with a hamstring injury sustained in the 2-2 draw with Ghana on Thursday.
The Pharaohs must beat Cape Verde in their final group game today to be sure of qualification from their group.
“I would love to win it, absolutely. It will happen somehow, that is what I believe,” Salah, 31, said. “Whatever I believe I achieve, so sooner or later it will happen.”
Salah has won the Premier League and the Champions League in a glittering career with Liverpool.
The forward has only experienced heartache with his country so far though, losing to Cameroon in Gabon in the 2017 final, and at the last edition in Cameroon two years ago to Senegal.
“I have won everything possible but this one not yet,” Salah said.
Salah made his Egypt debut in 2011, a year after they won the last of their record seven Cup of Nations titles.
“Everybody knows what it means to any player to win an Africa Cup,” he said.
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“We were unlucky at the last one and also in Gabon. The players are very motivated to win the tournament. We all want to win it.”
Rui Vitoria’s team needed Salah’s injury-time penalty to draw 2-2 with Mozambique in their first match, and then had to come from behind twice to hold Ghana after Salah went off injured.
If they beat Cape Verde, who have already secured first place in Group B, Egypt will advance to a last-16 tie in San-Pedro on 28 January.
Salah has already been ruled out of that game too, and is only expected to return for a quarter-final on 2 or 3 February, should Egypt make it that far.
“My injury is still there but the most important thing now is to speak about the game,” Salah said. “At the end of the day we are not doing great at the moment but we have a fantastic team and a great coach, so we just need to stay focused.
“I believe that with hard work everything is possible, so we just need to win one game to qualify and we go from there.
“We are very positive, we have great players and a great team, and we just need to fight and see what will happen.”