Sadio Mane’s Liverpool return date revealed after hectic AFCON campaign

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Sadio Mane will make his Liverpool return on August 5, a day after the Reds face Manchester City in the Community Shield.

The 2018/19 season was statistically the best season of Sadio Mane’s career as he netted 26 goals and registered five assists for Liverpool in 50 appearances across all competitions. Mane won the Golden Boot along with Liverpool teammate Mohamed Salah and Arsenal’s Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang by scoring 22 goals in the Premier League. His Premier League performances were enough for the winger to find a place in the PFA Team of the Year.

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The 27-year old played a key role in Liverpool’s Champions League triumph, scoring four goals (including one of the goals of the competition against Bayern Munich and providing three assists. He was one of the six Liverpool players in the Champions League Team of the Season.

Mane also had a remarkable AFCON, scoring three goals and providing an assist as The Lions of Teranga reached their first AFCON final since 2002 where they lost to Algeria courtesy of an early deflected strike from Baghdad Bounedjah. Senegal had five players named in the Team of the Tournament and Mane was one of them.

The former Southampton man will now take a break before returning to action on August 5, as stated by Jurgen Klopp on Liverpool’s official website.

Klopp said: “He is in good shape. Obviously they had a celebration in Senegal and I’m happy about that because it showed that they respect the competition and saw the second place as a success, which is nice. He is now on holiday, not the longest one – he will be back on August 5, after the Manchester City game. That means he had two weeks. There is four or five days to prepare for Norwich, ten days for Chelsea [in the UEFA Super Cup].”

With Mane absent, Jurgen Klopp will most likely field a front three of Mohamed Salah, Roberto Firmino and Divock Origi against Manchester City in the Community Shield.

Liverpool fans will no doubt be eager to see one of their best players back in action soon, however, as they’ll need the best squad available to them if they are to close that slender gap between themselves and City in next season’s title race.

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