Former Chelsea midfielder John Obi Mikel has spoken about a time Jose Mourinho upset Mohamed Salah during his days at Stamford Bridge
Mohamed Salah was once left in tears after being substituted at half-time by Jose Mourinho and criticised for his performance by the former Chelsea boss, according to ex-team-mate John Obi Mikel.
Chelsea beat Liverpool to the £11 million signing of Salah back in 2014, but the Egyptian spent a torrid two-and-a-half years at Stamford Bridge before departing for Fiorentina.
Salah scored twice in his first five Premier League games, but soon fell out of favour under Mourinho. The Egyptian returned to England in 2017 with Liverpool and is now one of the league’s greatest goalscorers.
Mikel has revealed Salah was left visibly emotional in the Chelsea dressing room after feeling the full wrath of Mourinho during a ‘bad game’.
The ex-Chelsea midfielder said on Dubai Eye: “I think [Salah] was having a bad game and then obviously Mourinho came in and ripped into him, massively ripped into him.
Mikel was then asked if he ever expected Salah to go on and come a top player, he responded: “No. He was in tears, and what happened is [Mourinho] didn’t let him back onto the pitch in the second half. He took him off.
“It would have been easy to just take him off and say ‘you’re not playing well, off you go, sit down, you’re not going back onto the pitch.’ But he ripped into him and took him off.”
Salah has gone on to become one of the best players in world football at with the Reds, scoring 174 goals in 286 games while winning the Premier League, Champions League, FA Cup, League Cup, Super Cup and Club World Cup.
