Mohamed Salah heads for Morocco this week to captain Egypt in the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) amid uncertainty over his future at Liverpool.

Salah came off the bench midway through the first half and set up the second goal in a 2-0 Premier League win over Brighton at the weekend.

After the match, manager Arne Slot said there was “no issue to resolve” with his star forward, but speculation continues to rumble over the Egyptian’s future after his outburst last weekend.

AFP Sport highlights African headline-makers in the major European leagues:

ENGLAND

MOHAMED SALAH (Liverpool)

The 33-year-old came on as a substitute and seized his chance by setting up Liverpool’s second goal for Hugo Ekitike. Salah had been left out of Liverpool’s squad for Tuesday’s Champions League victory at Inter Milan after his explosive rant about Slot following the recent draw at Leeds. That was the third successive game that Salah had been left on the bench and his furious claim that he had been “thrown under the bus” hinted at a potential departure from the troubled Premier League champions during the January transfer window.

CALVIN BASSEY (Fulham)

The Nigeria defender scored in his side’s 3-2 win at Burnley. Bassey grabbed Fulham’s second goal to put them 2-1 up in the 31st minute en route to their first victory at Turf Moor since 1951. The 25-year-old’s close-range header from Harry Wilson’s cross was his first goal since an FA Cup tie against Manchester United in March.

IBRAHIM SANGARE (Nottingham Forest)

The Ivory Coast midfielder capped his side’s 3-0 victory over Tottenham with the final goal. Sangare netted in the 79th minute at the City Ground, bending a superb strike in off the post with the outside of his foot. The 28-year-old’s second goal this season — and his first in seven matches — helped boost Forest’s bid to avoid relegation.

SPAIN

AKOR ADAMS, CHIDERA EJUKE (Sevilla)

Nigerians Adams and Ejuke celebrated AFCON call-ups with a goal each as Sevilla hammered Real Oviedo 4-0 in La Liga. Adams opened the scoring in the fourth minute and Ejuke completed the rout with one minute of regular time remaining.

GERMANY

MOHAMED AMOURA (Wolfsburg)

Amoura scored for the second straight match in Wolfburg’s 3-1 Bundesliga win at Borussia Moenchengladbach. With the teams level after 34 minutes, Amoura was on the spot to blast in a deflected Christian Eriksen cross, putting the visitors back in front. The 25-year-old has six goals and two assists for Wolfsburg in the league this season.

RAMY BENSEBAINI (Borussia Dortmund)

Borussia defender Bensebaini scored his side’s only goal in a disappointing 1-1 draw at Freiburg. With Dortmund teammate and Guinea international Serhou Guirassy struggling in front of goal and missing chances, Bensebaini took matters into his own hands with 31 minutes gone. The Algerian latched onto a Yan Couto free-kick and blasted home from close range.

FRANCE

HIMAD ABDELLI, HAROUNA DJIBIRIN (Angers)

Algerian Abdelli converted an early penalty and Cameroonian Djibirin restored a two-goal lead on 85 minutes as mid-table Angers trounced lowly Nantes 4-1 in Ligue 1. Both Africans were scoring their second goals of the league campaign.

KANSAS CITY, Mo — Chargers safety Tony Jefferson was ejected after a helmet-to-helmet hit on Kansas City Chiefs wide receiver Tyquan Thornton in the fourth quarter of Los Angeles’ 16-13 victory Sunday and left the field in frustration, making an obscene gesture toward fans.

After the game, Jefferson apologized for the gesture. He said that he didn’t have any bad intentions on the hit and thought it was legal but hadn’t yet seen a replay.

“I’m classier than that. I was just caught up in the moment,” Jefferson said. “Emotions get high. I won’t sit here and act like I’m a perfect man. I messed up and I did that. I have kids at home and there’s kids out there watching the game too, so I apologize.”

The play was initially flagged for unnecessary roughness, and a brief skirmish followed before officials disqualified Jefferson. Thornton was put in concussion protocol after the hit.

“I saw a football play,” coach Jim Harbaugh said. “That’s what I saw.”

Jefferson had been physical throughout the game, delivering multiple big hits, including a jarring shot on Chiefs receiver Rashee Rice that forced an incompletion on third down earlier in the game.

“Physicality is a huge part of the game,” he said. “You have to be smart with it.”

Jefferson, who was a healthy inactive for three games this year, has become one of the most important players in the Chargers’ secondary in recent weeks.

Before this season, Jefferson had four interceptions over his first 10 seasons in the NFL. This season, Jefferson is tied for the team lead in interceptions with four while routinely delivering crushing hits to receivers who dare to catch passes over the middle of the field, as he did on Sunday.

“He’s playing really good, really good football,” Harbaugh said.

The Chargers already began Sunday’s game without safety Elijah Molden, who had a hamstring injury. Rookie safety RJ Mickens also went down with a shoulder injury. Without Jefferson, the Chargers had to rely on veteran Marcus Williams, who was elevated from the practice squad, and Kendall Williamson, who typically only plays special teams.

The video assistant referee causes controversy every week in the Premier League, but how are decisions made, and are they correct?

This season, we take a look at the major incidents to examine and explain the process both in terms of the VAR protocol and the laws of the game.

All screenshots photo credit: NBC

Andy Davies (@andydaviesref) is a former Select Group referee, with over 12 seasons on the elite list, working across the Premier League and Championship. With extensive experience at the elite level, he has operated within the VAR space in the Premier League and offers a unique insight into the processes, rationale and protocols that are delivered on a Premier League matchday.

Referee: Craig Pawson
VAR: Darren England
Incident: Possible red card
Time: 45+2 minutes

What happened: Brighton’s Diego Gómez challenged Liverpool attacker Florian Wirtz. The challenge was late and high, with referee Craig Pawson deeming it a reckless challenge, giving Gómez a yellow card for his actions.

VAR decision: The referee’s call of a yellow card for Gómez was checked and confirmed by the VAR — with the challenge deemed not to be with excessive force and not serious foul play.

VAR review: Pawson’s communication would have described the challenge by Gómez as high and reckless, with a level of contact; however that contact lacked any force to meet the threshold of serious foul play.

The VAR review centered around Pawson’s wording, with any intervention only considered if the replays evidenced the contact to be different to that described on-field.

These types of situations are judged against one of two wordings in law:

• A disregard for the safety of their opponent: yellow card
• Endangering the safety of their opponent: red card

The VAR was comfortable that the referee’s judgement was sound and that it met the criteria for a yellow card.

Verdict: A correct on-field judgment by Pawson, with Gómez showing a disregard for the safety of his opponent as opposed to endangering him, and the VAR was right not to intervene.

However, Gómez was fortunate. It is a fine line with these types of challenges, and more direct contact to the chest of Wirtz with his straight-legged approach, and the VAR review would have produced a red card for the Brighton player.

Referee: Rob Jones
VAR: John Brooks
Incident: Possible red card
Time: 59 minutes

What happened: Wolves midfielder Hwang Hee-Chan, having overrun the ball in midfield, threw himself into a challenge on Arsenal defender Myles Lewis-Skelly from distance. Jones deemed the challenge to be reckless, as opposed to serious foul play, and only cautioned the Wolves player.

VAR decision: The referee’s call of a yellow card was confirmed by the VAR — with Hwang deemed to be pulling out of the challenge on Lewis-Skelly and the contact on the foot deemed to be just a reckless foul and nothing more serious.

VAR review: Watching the live feed, this challenge would have immediately caused concern for Brooks in the VAR hub and his initial thought would naturally have gravitated toward upgrading it to a red card.

But Jones and his team took their time to process the information between them. Brooks’ review would have been thorough, looking at a number of replays, as the challenge was borderline against all the criteria considered for a red card offense. However, for him to recommend an on-field review, he needed clear and obvious evidence that an error had been made.

Hwang did overrun the ball and was, to a degree, out of control, while he did make contact with his opponent at speed. The contact, however, was on the top of Lewis-Skelly’s foot, with Hwang attempting to retract his leading foot at the point of contact, which reduced the force to a low level.

These considerations led the VAR to agree with the on-field decision of a yellow card.

Verdict: The VAR was correct to not intervene in this event, and the process he employed highlighted a high level of application in his role. The initial challenge looked a poor one in real time, however, it is the role of the VAR to remove all emotion and operate only with the facts and pictures presented.

Hwang can consider himself fortunate that his reckless challenge was at a low point of contact, which is the only thing that saved him.

On reflection, Jones will be disappointed with his body shape and positioning at the point the challenge was made. He was caught pivoting on the spot, so his view of the tackle was blocked and he left himself without the opportunity to view the contact in full. Instead, he was forced to rely on his assistants to feed the information as best they could.