LATEST: Percy Tau’s return delayed again

Al Ahly’s Percy Tau, who was just named in the CAF Team of the Decade, has undoubtedly reached a key crossroad in his career.

The 28-year-old is expected to soon make his long-awaited return from injury as he looks to revive his career at Al Ahly under new coach Marcel Koller, but his comeback has again been delayed to some degree.

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Recent reports suggested Tau could be back for a pre-season friendly last week, but the latest update has revealed he will need a bit more time.

“Percy Tau’s return is close,” Al Ahly’s director of football Sayed Abdelhafiz told the club’s official website. “The player has recovered from his muscular injury and he will perform the final phase of his rehabilitation program this week. The player is expected to join the group next week.”

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In what just served as a timely reminder of just how highly Tau has been regarded in the past, this week he was named in the CAF Team of the Decade for the period between 2010 and 2020 along with Khama Billiat and Denis Onyango.

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For several weeks it’s been reported that Al Ahly were intent on offloading Tau, who has been suffering from another injury, although it increasingly became clear that there were very few other options available for the 28-year-old.

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The desire of Al Ahly to part ways with Tau was recently highlighted by several publications, but more recently it had become clear that he will remain at Egypt club Al Ahly despite previous exit talks.

Speculation of Tau’s exit from Al Ahly have come to an end as he has appeared in training with the team, with signs suggesting he is firmly in the plans of new Koller ahead of the new campaign.

Koller is in fact said to be keen to assess Tau before the CAF Champions League campaign soon gets underway. The coach named the club’s CAF Champions League squad a week after taking over the coaching job, and notably included Tau, who most recently was not named in the latest Bafana squad.

Al Ahly have now also registered their squad for the 2022/23 Egyptian Premier League campaign, with Tau again included in that player list in the clearest indication yet that he is in the long-term plans of the squad.

Al Ahly squad in full:

Goalkeepers: Mohamed El-Shennawy, Ali Lotfi, Mostafa Shobier.

Defenders: Mohamed Hany, Karim Fouad, Mohamed Abdelmonem, Yasser Ibrahim, Rami Rabia, Mahmoud Metwally, Ali Maaloul, Ayman Ashraf, Mohamed Khalifa, Akram Tawfik.

Midfielders: Amr El-Solia, Aliou Dieng, Hamdi Fathy, Mohamed Mahmoud, Mohamed Fakhri, Mohamed Magdy Afsha, Ahmed Abdelkader, Hussein El-Shahat, Taher Mohamed, Ziad Tarek, Abdelrahman Ashraf, Walid Mostafa, Amar Hamdi, Mahmoud Kahraba.

Forwards: Mohamed Sherif, Hossam Hassan, Shady Hussein, Bruno Savio, Percy Tau.

ICYMI: PITSO INSISTS HE HASN’T ‘KILLED THE CAREER’ OF PERCY TAU

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