The Egyptian forward came off the bench as the Reds won 2-0 in Saturday's (13.12.25) Premier League clash and Van Dijk hopes that it puts an end to the star's unhappiness after he complained that he had been "thrown under the bus" earlier this month.

The Liverpool captain said: "We showed this week that we are absolutely united. We go forward as one.

"Mo is going to Afcon and we all hope that he'll be successful there and he'll come back and be important for us for the rest of the season.

"The other side of it is that we all know football and we have no idea what is going to happen. I hope that he stays because he is one of my leaders and still very important for the football club. But there's more parties to this situation."

Van Dijk also praised manager Arne Slot for how he has handled the Salah fallout as Liverpool stretched their unbeaten run to five matches.

He said: "I think he has handled the situation very well - calm in his own way and it's a very tricky situation.

"There's a lot of noise and pressure from the outside world and rightly so because we've not been up to the standard we've shown in the last few seasons.

"We've just got to keep going. He's at a club which is very together and that's how it has been before our time at the club, and that's something we have to keep going.

"We go through the good times together, as a team, as a club and as a fanbase, but sometimes when the difficult moments arise we also have to stick together. This moment of time is a very good moment to see how everyone responds."