Egyptian Shikabala left out of UEFA squad

Egypt’s national team winger Mahmoud Shikabala has not been assigned to his team’s squad that will play in the UEFA Champions League, al-Ahram Online news website reported.

Since he left Egypt’s Zamalek in January, Shikabala has played only one competitive game for his current football club, Portugal’s Sporting.

Ahram Online reports that the 28-year-old football player has had a rough time getting in physical shape in the second half of last season which explains his exclusion from his team’s the UEFA league squad.

It was reported that he had a dispute with club management in August following his late return to Lisbon after a friendly match in Alexandria.

He was initially banned from going back to Lisbon after failing to obtain permission from the Egyptian army on time but resolved the problem a few days later.

Mortada Mansour, chairman of Zamalek, had recently denied his interest in getting Shikabala to play for his team again, Ahram Online wrote.

Rami Rabia, another Egyptian footballer playing for Sporting, made it to the squad and will be playing for the Portuguese team in the upcoming games.