LEWIS STEELE: Liverpool had been handicapped like a horse at Cheltenham – but with Mohamed Salah fully fit things can only get BETTER… Thrashing Sparta Prague must have sent shockwaves to Pep Guardiola and Mikel Arteta

It’s easy to forget that Liverpool find themselves in this position, with one trophy in the bag and in a strong position to win up to three more, without their talisman for the last three months.

As the Reds chased victory after victory in the first half of the season, there was a feeling – on Merseyside and beyond – that it could all come crashing down in January, when Mohamed Salah jetted off to the African Cup of Nations.

Salah did that and then some, as the Egyptian suffered an injury in the Ivory Coast tournament that has forced him to start just one game for his club since New Year’s Day.

But here we are, heading into the March international break, with Liverpool still outperforming teams, having overcome the huge hurdle of being without their best player for a significant percentage of the season.

To compare their trophy haul to a horse in Cheltenham Festival week, Liverpool have been badly handicapped, not to mention a squad-wide injury crisis.

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But with manager Jurgen Klopp striving for greatness, regardless of who is in the XI – “it’s not about who plays, it’s about how you play,” he often says – Liverpool continue to fly.

However, that can surely only improve now that Salah is fully fit. His goal and hat-trick of assists against Sparta Prague in this 6-1 rout simply sent a reminder of his unique talent and importance to this team.

His goal brought his tally to 20 on the season for the seventh consecutive season. No player in Liverpool’s illustrious history has done that, further underlining his case as one of the greatest players to have graced the Anfield turf.

He must also have shocked Pep Guardiola and Mikel Arteta ahead of the final stretch of the season, not to mention Erik ten Hag ahead of Liverpool’s trip to Old Trafford in the FA Cup on Sunday.

“In seven years with him, the only problem we never had was consistency,” Klopp said. “Mo is just delivering and delivering and delivering, his desire doesn’t stop, his quality is there and his desire to score doesn’t stop.

‘He has improved in many ways since he started here. That’s right, it won’t stop. I’m less surprised than maybe others, I thought it had already happened to be honest, but he was injured for a while, otherwise he would have done it in January or February. But great, very good and fantastic to have him back.”

Liverpool have overcome many obstacles this season but any hopes of them failing in the final weeks of the campaign should be dispelled by the return of Egyptian king Salah.