Egypt's El Hadary, 45, to become oldest player in World Cup history

Liverpool and Egypt star Mohamed Salah has been ruled out of the next two Africa Cup of Nations games with a hamstring injury, his country's football association said Friday.

"Tests on Mohamed Salah, the captain of the Egypt national team, proved that he suffered a hamstring injury and will miss the next two matches of the team at the AFCON," the Egyptian FA said in a statement.

Salah, 31, came off late in the first half of the Pharaohs' 2-2 draw with Ghana on Thursday.

He will therefore sit out Monday's final group game against Cape Verde and any last-16 tie that would follow that.

After drawing their opening two games at the tournament, the record seven-time African champions need to beat already-qualified Cape Verde to be guaranteed of advancing in second place in Group B.

That would tee up a last-16 tie in San-Pedro on January 28, while they could also potentially qualify as one of the best third-placed teams.

He will therefore only feature again at the competition if Egypt make it to a quarter-final on February 2 or 3.

Egypt needed an injury-time penalty from Salah to salvage a 2-2 draw with Mozambique in their opening game at the tournament.

On Thursday they had to come from behind twice to draw with Ghana, Omar Marmoush and Mostafa Mohamed scoring their goals, with the result leaving them on two points from two matches.

The last of Egypt's seven titles at the Cup of Nations came in 2010, a year before Salah made his international debut.

Starting line-ups for the World Cup third place playoff between Belgium and England in Saint Petersburg on Saturday (1400 GMT kick-off):

Belgium (3-4-3)

Thibaut Courtois; Toby Alderweireld, Vincent Kompany, Jan Vertonghen; Thomas Meunier, Axel Witsel, Youri Tielemans, Nacer Chadli; Kevin De Bruyne, Romelu Lukaku, Eden Hazard (capt)

Coach: Roberto Martinez (ESP)

England (3-5-2)

Jordan Pickford; Phil Jones, John Stones, Harry Maguire; Kieran Trippier, Eric Dier, Fabian Delph, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Danny Rose; Raheem Sterling, Harry Kane (capt)

Coach: Gareth Southgate (ENG)

Referee: Alireza Faghani (IRI)

The agriculture ministry today gave go-ahead to onion import from nine countries apart from India.

The approval has been given for bringing in 21,580 tonnes of the bulb from China, Egypt, Pakistan, Qatar, Turkey, Myanmar, Thailand, the Netherlands and the UAE.

The highest amount of the vegetable will be imported from Pakistan, the ministry said in a statement.

The move comes couple of days after onion prices soared in the domestic market after India imposed 40 percent export tax on the shipment of the popular bulb to tame price spiral in its local market.

Today, retail prices of imported onions hovered between Tk 70 to Tk 75 a kilogramme, up from Tk 55-60 a week ago, according to the market prices data of the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh.

Locally grown onion also became dearer.

Today, retail prices of the locally produced variety were Tk 80-Tk 85 a kg from Tk 65-Tk 80 a week ago.

The agriculture ministry started giving permission for onion import from the first week of June this year to cool off the increase in its prices amid a fall in supply of the vegetable grown locally.

Until today, it okayed bids to import 13.7 lakh tonnes of onions, of which businesses so far brought in 3.79 lakh tonnes.

Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic gave Russian President Vladimir Putin a Croatian soccer shirt with the name "Putin" printed on the back on Sunday, hours before Croatia play France in the World Cup final in Moscow.

Croatia has been caught up in soccer fever after the Balkan nation of 4.2 million people swept aside more fancied opponents to reach its first ever World Cup final, which Russia is hosting this year.

Grabar-Kitarovic has, herself, entered into the spirit of the occasion, travelling to Russia to watch matches and dressing in the colours of the national flag. Croatia knocked Russia's team out of the competition in the quarter-finals.

At a Kremlin meeting, Putin congratulated the Croatian president on the Croatian team's performance.

"I'm sure we will see a beautiful game today," he said. Grabar-Kitarovic thanked Putin for what she said was the successful organisation of the competition.

Putin presented her with a bouquet of flowers, while she gave the Russian leader the Croatian national shirt.

Jurgen Klopp said he was shocked to discover Liverpool star Mohamed Salah had suffered a hamstring injury while playing for Egypt at the Africa Cup of Nations.

Salah has missed just 10 Premier League matches in six and a half seasons with Liverpool.

The 31-year-old's impressive fitness record meant Liverpool boss Klopp was surprised to learn his forward had been forced off during Egypt's 2-2 draw with Ghana on Thursday.

The German is now sweating on the extent of Salah's injury and how long he will be sidelined.

"In the moment it was a shock. He felt it and we all know how rarely Mo needs to go off so there was definitely something," Klopp told reporters on Friday.

"I don't have any more information right now. I spoke with him last night. They are doing further assessments and then we will know more."

After the game Egypt coach Rui Vitoria said he hoped Salah's injury was not a big problem, adding: "I think it's not dangerous, but let's see if Salah recovers."

Klopp revealed Liverpool will wait for further updates before deciding whether to send their medical staff to the Ivory Coast to check on Salah.

"It's too early. We will see. It depends on what the diagnosis is," he said.

"They (Egypt) will do an ultrasound and an MRI and then we will know what it is and what Egypt's plans are."

While Liverpool did not expect Salah to return from the Cup of Nations until early in February, a long-term injury would be a huge blow as the Premier League leaders chase the title, as well as competing for the FA Cup, League Cup and Europa League.

The Reds head to Bournemouth on Sunday looking to extend their advantage at the top to five points.

Due to a combination of injuries and international commitments, Klopp will be without Salah, Wataru Endo, Kostas Tsimikas, Andrew Robertson, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Joel Matip, Thiago Alcantara, Dominik Szoboszlai and Stefan Bajcetic.

Robertson, Alexander-Arnold and Szoboszlai are closest to a return, potentially in Wednesday's League Cup semi-final second leg at Fulham.

Liverpool hold a 2-1 lead from the first meeting against the Cottagers at Anfield.

"They're all positive but not ready. They're all getting closer and closer and closer and some of them might be in team training next week but for the Bournemouth game I don't expect anyone back," Klopp said.

"After Bournemouth maybe for Fulham we will see how the boys do, but they are all close. Trent close, Dom close, Robbo close."