Egypt's national team coach Hossam Hassan clarified the truth about his previous statements regarding Mohamed El Shenawy, stressing that they were misunderstood, and that he did not intend to belittle the Al Ahly goalkeeper or question his abilities.
During the press conference before the Egypt-South Sudan match, Hossam Hassan said that his previous remarks about El Shenawy referred to a specific period of time the player had gone through, explaining that his use of the word "was" meant that it was related to the past.
He added: "I said El Shenawy was finished, and 'was' here is a past tense verb, and I meant a specific period, which was the period of the player's shoulder injury, and we were trying by any means to prepare him with the technical and medical staff of his Al Ahly team.
The Pharaohs' coach stressed his complete respect for El Shenawy, saying: "El Shenawy is one of the goalkeepers who have been loyal to the Egyptian national team, and I have great confidence in him and in all the goalkeepers."
He continued: "I don't mean to belittle anyone, they are all my brothers and sons, and El Shenawy is one of the players who were loyal to the national team, and I trust him and all the goalkeepers," stressing that excluding the goalkeeper from the national team list does not diminish his value.
Hossam Hassan’s previous statements had sparked widespread controversy, after he said that El Shenawy had gone through a period in which he was not participating with Al Ahly, and described his condition at that time as “finished,” before he returned to participate with his club after appearing with the national team, stressing that the goalkeeper’s exclusion from the September camp came as a technical decision.
The phrase "was finished" caused anger within Al-Ahly Club, which issued a statement expressing its displeasure with the statements, stressing its refusal to compromise the technical and moral value of Mohamed El Shenawy, as the team's goalkeeper and captain, while emphasizing that the selection of national team players is an inherent right of the technical staff.
The crisis came in the wake of Hossam Hassan’s decision to exclude El Shenawy from the Egyptian national team’s squad for the September camp, during which the Pharaohs played against Angola and South Sudan as part of the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers. The squad of goalkeepers in the camp included Mostafa Shobeir, Mahdi Suleiman, Mohamed Alaa and Abdel Aziz El Balouti.
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