The Highlights
- Liverpool's Mohamed Salah (shoulder) left the Champions League final in tears after just 30 minutes
- Salah's World Cup with Egypt is now in question due to the injury
- Uruguay, Egypt's opponent in the opener on June 14, quickly moved from -142 to -170 within minutes
After an exciting opening 25 minutes of the Champions League final between Liverpool and Real Madrid, things took a turn for the worse. Liverpool's Mohamed Salah was taken down by Real Madrid's Sergio Ramos and was forced to come off with a shoulder injury just minutes later.
This was devastating not only for Reds supporters, but also for Egypt, who begin their World Cup run in less than three weeks against Uruguay. The market wasted no time reacting to the news.
Salah's subbing-off even caused Twitter to crash briefly. Within minutes of the potentially serious injury, Uruguay moved from -142 to -170 at Pinnacle for the World Cup opener against Egypt. The line movement was likely caused by both the market getting ahead of the news and bettors getting down on Uruguay, sensing big value if Salah is ruled out.
Egypt's odds to beat Uruguay in the opener moved from +490 to +715, roughly a 5% decrease in implied win probability. Not only did the line move in the opener, but it also moved for their following group match against Russia. Egypt's odds to beat the hosts drifted from +300 to +365, a 3.5% decrease in win probability, while Russia moved from +104 to -120.
The Pharaohs had become a popular pick to advance from Group A and could still do it without their star Salah, but there's no replacing what he brings to team. Egypt is currently 170-1 to win the World Cup, +475 to win Group A, and +130 to advance from Group A.
