Salah on the bench for Egypt's opener

Egypt named a starting lineup without striker Mohamed Salah for their World Cup opener against Uruguay on Friday, a day after coach Hector Cuper had said he was nearly 100 percent certain to play.

Salah, who injured his shoulder in the Champions League final on May 26, came out with other players to inspect the pitch in Yekaterinburg. However, he was missing from the starting 11 named on the team's official Twitter account, which showed Marwan Mohsen leading the attack. 

The build-up to this game has been dominated by the fitness of Salah. He joined the squad for training on Wednesday, completing the warm-up and then finishing the rest of the session away from the group. The team doctor said afterwards they were monitoring his progress "day by day", and Cuper played down the importance of the forward, saying: "Our tactics don't solely revolve around him."