Mo Salah smashes Liverpool pre-season fitness tests ahead of surprise contender

Mohamed Salah has shown no signs of slowing down as he set the standard in Liverpool’s gruelling pre-season fitness tests.

The Arne Slot era at Anfield looks to be in full swing as the new manager and his coaching staff kicked things off by introducing a new test of their players’ endurance.

Fans will have grown used to the infamous lactate test favoured by former boss Jurgen Klopp at the start of each pre-season, which was routinely won by veteran ex-Red James Milner.

But the departure of both over the past 12 months had left an opening for a new fitness king to be crowned at Liverpool.

And that gap appears to have now been filled, after star forward Salah reportedly shone in the new six-minute race test (6MRT) favoured by Slot and his team.

In the drill, players are required to cover as much ground as possible during six minutes of running around a 400m race track.

According to The Athletic, the Egypt captain, who returned to training last week just days after the first set of Reds players, knocked other standout performer Sepp van den Berg off the top of the leaderboard.

Dutch defender van den Berg, who spent last season on loan at Bundesliga side Mainz and has been linked with an exit this summer, initially set the benchmark, before Salah then recorded the furthest distance covered out of the entire team.

The 32-year-old’s impressive physical condition was hailed by fitness coach Conall Murtagh, who is quoted as calling him ‘phenomenal’.

Salah took on the gruelling test alongside teammate Wataru Endo, with the pair returning together following their involvement in international matches for Egypt and Japan.

3

3

Murtagh had urged the experienced duo: “It’s important to show your mentality. Show the lads how it’s done as leaders in the group.”

The forward’s strong start on the training pitch will please both Slot and the Reds’ faithful, with it arguably displaying his intent for the coming season, despite being yet to sign a new deal at the club.

Salah is one of three key players still to agree new terms on a contract that expires next summer, alongside players Virgil van Dijk and Trent Alexander-Arnold.

In the meantime, the wing wizard will join the Reds’ squad in jetting off to the US for their pre-season tour on July 26, where they will face Arsenal, Manchester United and Real Betis.

Manager Slot will be relying on the experience of the likes of Salah during this trip, with a number of senior figures set to miss out on the tour due to their involvement in the latter stages of the European Championship and Copa America respectively.

This includes Alexander-Arnold and fellow England teammate Joe Gomez, France’s Ibrahima Konate and the Dutch trio of Van Dijk, Cody Gakpo and Ryan Gravenberch, who all featured in Euro 2024.

Meanwhile, Copa America winner Alexis Mac Allister, whilst Colombian’s Luis Diaz and Uruguay striker Darwin Nunez also took part in the competition and will not make the trip to the States.

With many of Liverpool’s stars yet to take on the dreaded fitness test, it remains to be seen whether Salah will make it to the end of summer still at the top of the leaderboard.