Mohamed Salah performance raises eyebrows in grueling new Arne Slot fitness test

Mohamed Salah is Liverpool's new pre-season fitness test king after making an impressive return to training.

The Reds are currently preparing for the upcoming 2024/25 Premier League campaign, which gets underway in just under a month. Liverpool will take on Ipswich Town in their domestic opener, travelling down to Portman Road on August 17, in what will be Arne Slot's first competitive game in charge of the Reds.

While some of the Liverpool squad have been handed an extended break due to their international commitments following Euro 2024 and the Copa America, the rest of the Reds first team are back on Merseyside at the AXA Training Centre in Kirkby, undergoing gruelling fitness testing from Slot.

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For years, these were the weeks where James Milner dominated the pre-season headlines. The ex-Liverpool star won the Reds pre-season lactate test every year during his time on Merseyside under Jurgen Klopp .

But now it seems the mantle of pre-season fitness king has been passed on to Salah. The Athletic report the Egyptian came top of the Liverpool pre-season leaderboard during a six-minute race test at Kirkby. And in doing so, the 32-year-old knocked Sepp van den Berg off the top of the pre-season rankings.

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So impressive was Salah's conditioning, it led Liverpool's first team fitness coach, Conall Murtagh, to brand the Reds star's performance as: "Phenomenal." And if Liverpool want to hit the ground running this season under Slot, they had better hope Salah can replicate his pre-season fitness performances on the pitch.

The Reds are currently without a host of players ahead of the start of their pre-season tour to America next week. Trent Alexander-Arnold and Joe Gomez are both on holiday following England's defeat to Spain at Euro 2024. Alexis Mac Allister, Luis Diaz and Darwin Nunez were all involved in the latter stages of the Copa America, with the first two having faced off in the final for Argentina and Colombia respectively.

Then there's also Dutch trio Virgil van Dijk , Cody Gakpo and Ryan Gravenberch and French defender Ibrahima Konate. They all reached the semi-finals of the European Championships and are set to return a few days prior to the Reds international finalists. Diogo Jota and Alisson are also both away too.