Sadio Mané Knocked Unconscious, Scores as Senegal Advance to Quarter-Finals

With the international break starting, Liverpool have a two-week break from competitive football, and as their first match coming back will be an FA Cup clash with Cardiff, the Reds will have all of their AfCoN participants back on Merseyside by the time the Premier League rolls back around.

Naby Keïta’s Guinea was eliminated yesterday, with the man himself missing out due to accumulated bookings, and the midfielder will be back in Liverpool before his continent mates, but Sadio Mané’s Senegal will be playing in the quarter-final at the weekend following a 2-0 win over Cape Verde, in what was a dramatically eventful game for the Liverpool man.

In the 57th minute, with Cape Verde having already played half an hour a man down, Sadio chased a long through ball and collided headfirst with the Cape Verdean goalkeeper. Both players were knocked unconscious in the clash of heads, with Mané landing on his face in a worryingly limp heap. Vozinha was sent off, and had concussion protocol been observed in any meaningful way, Mané would have been substituted.

Instead, the Liverpool man played on, scoring a gorgeous curler five minutes later. Naturally, this would not be the end of such a dramatic collision, and the 29-year old was substituted minutes later and sent to the hospital, struggling with dizziness and staying on his feet.

Mané is reportedly perfectly fine now, but we’ll take this news with a heap of salt and reserve judgment until he’s gone a few more days without headaches and nausea and collapses, thank you very much.

Mohamed Salah will look to lead his beloved Egypt to the next stage tomorrow, as they take on the Ivory Coast in Douala. If the two teams navigate their respective quarter-finals, they will face off in the semi-final of the competition.