On Sunday, the US broadcaster CNN reported that Salah was "considering quitting the Egyptian national team due to his unhappiness over what has happened in Chechnya," where his side is based during this summer's FIFA World Cup in Russia.

Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov made Salah an honorary citizen of the southern Russian region last Friday, which he announced at a dinner given for the Egyptian national team. Later, Kadyrov told the Russian media that Egypt would play a friendly match against local club Akhmat Grozny.

"Mohamed Salah is at the camp and training with his teammates," said Egypt's PR man Osama Ismail.

"He has been at all matches. He has not expressed any unhappiness to any officials. There hasn’t been any mention of anything like that. I have no idea where CNN gets its information from… you shouldn’t trust information unless it comes from Salah's own Twitter account," he added.

Chechen minister Dzhambulat Umarov said that rumors about Salah were "lies" and "nonsense." He told the Russian radio Govorit Moskva that the player "could not make such statements."

Egypt, who failed to advance to the knockout stage of the tournament, will play their final World Cup match against Saudi Arabia in Volgograd on Monday.