Mo Salah has played at Anfield hundreds of times. He walked off at Anfield with sixty minutes gone on Saturday afternoon clutching his hamstring, and a thought settled across the stadium: this might have been the last time.
This is the Liverpool Crystal Palace reaction that nobody at Anfield wanted to write.
Liverpool won 3-1. Alexander Isak scored his first goal since breaking his leg in December. Florian Wirtz spanked in a beauty six minutes into injury time to seal it. The Reds move to fourth in the Premier League, above Aston Villa on 58 points from 34 games. All of that is good news.
But it sits underneath the Salah question, and that question does not have a clean answer yet.
Salah off at 60 minutes
Arne Slot was measured afterwards. “For Mo to leave the pitch, it shows you something,” the Liverpool manager said. “We have to wait and see how bad it is.”
Hamstring injuries in elite football typically take three to eight weeks to heal, depending on severity. Liverpool’s final Premier League match of the season is 24 May, against Brentford. That is just under four weeks away.
The arithmetic is tight. A grade one strain heals inside four weeks. A grade two takes six to eight. Until the scan results are known, no timeline is certain. What is certain is that Salah, who confirmed earlier this season that he will leave Liverpool at the end of his contract this summer, is not coming back next year.
He has been at Anfield since 2017. He has scored 228 goals for the club. He is the highest scorer in Liverpool’s Premier League history. Whatever else this season resolves, Salah’s farewell tour was already going to be an emotional month. The possibility that it ended on the Anfield turf at the sixty-minute mark on a Saturday afternoon in April, without ceremony, without a send-off, gives Saturday’s result a weight that the scoreline alone does not carry.
Liverpool will know more early this week. The hope among supporters will be that he can get through at least one more game. What that hope rests on is a scan.
Isak’s return
Against that backdrop, Alexander Isak’s goal deserves its own space.
He broke his leg in December. Four months out. The kind of injury that tests a player’s confidence in their own body long after the bone has healed. On Saturday, with thirty-five minutes gone, Mac Allister’s long shot skewed wide of the target. Isak controlled it and finished. First goal since the injury. First goal since before Christmas.
The manner of it mattered less than the fact of it. Isak looked like himself again. He competed for headers, he held the ball under pressure, and he took the chance when it came. For a player of his quality, the return of that confidence is as significant as the goal itself.
Isak’s injury had been a serious problem for Liverpool. He had been their most productive striker before December, and without him their attacking output dipped. Getting him back to scoring form now, with the season reaching its final stretch, is exactly the kind of news a manager in a top-four fight needs.
How the match unfolded
Liverpool controlled the first half without dominating it. Isak’s goal on 35 minutes was the reward for sustained pressure on the left side of Palace’s shape.
Five minutes later, Liverpool doubled the lead. Woodman produced a stunning save at the other end, denying Ismaila Sarr with Anfield already braced for a goal. The counter was immediate. Robertson found space down the left and finished into the bottom corner. Liverpool 2-0 at half-time.
Crystal Palace pulled one back in the 71st minute, and the circumstances were difficult. Woodman had been injured while making a save, left prone on the line. Carlos Muñoz lifted the ball over the goalkeeper to make it 2-1. Anfield jeered. There is no elegant way to describe that scenario: a goalkeeper down, a goal scored, a stadium unhappy. Palace’s fans would argue Muñoz had no obligation to stop playing. Liverpool’s supporters felt differently. Referee whistles are the answer in that situation, and none came.
That goal gave Palace a foothold. Slot made changes. Liverpool needed a response.
Wirtz provided it in the 96th minute, six minutes into injury time. He received the ball on the edge of the area, picked his spot, and drove it past Woodman. Three-one. Done.
What this means for Liverpool’s season
Liverpool sit fourth on 58 points from 34 games. Aston Villa are now below them. The top four is not yet confirmed.
Four games remain. The gap between Liverpool and fifth place is currently four points, depending on how Villa and others perform across the weekend’s remaining fixtures. A win in any of Liverpool’s remaining matches would go a long way to confirming Champions League football next season.
The squad is in decent shape despite the Salah concern. Wirtz has stepped into a central creative role with authority since joining in January. Isak’s return from injury adds a different dimension up front. Robertson’s goal on Saturday was his second in three games.
Liverpool have the points and the form to hold fourth. The next few weeks will establish whether they can do it without Salah, and whether Salah gets another chance to say goodbye to Anfield on his own terms.
Crystal Palace: safe, but goal controversy remains
Palace sit 13th with 43 points from 34 games. They are safe for the season. Oliver Glasner will manage his squad through the remaining fixtures with one eye on next year’s planning.
The Muñoz goal will be discussed. Woodman, their goalkeeper, was visibly injured at the point the ball was lifted over him. The goal stood. Palace took it. Those are the facts.
Palace showed moments of quality on the day. Woodman’s earlier save from Sarr was exceptional, the kind of stop that might have changed the shape of the match had the counter not followed so quickly. In a different context, that performance from Woodman would be the story of the match.
Instead it sits in the background, noted but not the headline.
The Salah question
Liverpool beat Crystal Palace 3-1. They move into fourth place. Isak scored his first goal since December. Wirtz was excellent.
All of that is real.
But on Sunday morning, Liverpool supporters are not refreshing the Premier League table. They are waiting for a hamstring scan result and hoping the outcome gives them one more Saturday with Salah in red.
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