Salah is yet to appear for Jose Mourinho's side this season

He picked out Mo Salah's lack of play-time at Chelsea as a problem

The Pharaohs lost the first qualifying game for the African Cup of Nations

Egypt coach Shawky Gharib has blamed Mo Salah's lack of game-time at Chelsea for an African Cup of Nations qualifying defeat to Senegal.

Salah was unable to inspire the Pharaohs to victory against Senegal as they went down 2-0 courtesy of goals from Stoke's Mame Biram Diouf and new Southampton signing Saido Mane.

And Gharib said Salah - who is yet to play for Chelsea this season - was not fit enough to perform at the level required, with his team-mates also struggling due to the Egyptian league being yet to start.

Struggle: Mo Salah couldn't inspire Egypt and that led their coach to speak about his fitness issues

OTHER RESULTS FROM AFRICA Sudan 0-3 South Africa Guinea 2-1 Togo Senegal 2-0 Egypt Advertisement

Salah initially impressed at Stamford Bridge following an £11million move from Basel in January but has fallen down the pecking order under Jose Mourinho this season with Andre Schurrle, Willian and Eden Hazard preferred in the wide positions.

And Gharib seemed to place some of the blame at Chelsea's door following the qualifying defeat on Sunday.

'We had many mistakes in passing the ball and we failed to put the required pressure on our opponents but the defenders are not the only ones to be blamed,' Gharib said, reports ahramonline.

Run outs: Salah was used a lot in the early stages of pre season but has fallen out of favour since

'The poor fitness of the players, especially Chelsea’s Mohamed Salah, is also a reason for the loss. The Egyptian league hasn't started yet and also Salah didn’t play regularly with Chelsea. If Salah is off-form, Egypt's performance is always affected.'

Salah will now return to Chelsea for training on Wednesday after the international break but is expected to be excluded from the starting line-up again for their game against Swansea on Saturday.

In Chelsea's last game of the season last campaign against Norwich, Mourinho was reported to have criticised Salah in a half-time team talk, telling the Egyptian winger to return for pre-season 'ready to be a footballer'.