Al Ahly felt the absence of injured Bafana Bafana star Percy Tau after being held to a 1-1 draw by Future FC on Friday evening.
In Tau’s absence, Al Ahly saw their Hussein El Shahat’s first-half goal cancelled out by Abdelkabir El Ouadi’s second-half strike.
The result sliced Al Ahly lead at the summit of the Egyptian Premier League log table from four points to two points away from holders Zamalek.
Both teams have played seven games each on the 18-member log table.
The rivals Zamalek needed an injury time goal from Yousef Osama to beat National Bank 1-0 also on Friday.
Al Ahly have not won the league for two consecutive seasons and seemed invincible after going on a six-game winning streak.
THE PERCY TAU EFFECT
Percy Tau contributed to that impressive run after scoring in the last back-to-back games.
However, Percy Tau has been ruled out by a month due to an injury he picked at Al Ahly Stadium in last Sunday.
The South African forward Tau limped off towards the end of an Egyptian Premier League match against Al Ittihad.
Al Ahly have not given an update but the website has indicated that Percy Tau has since started his rehabilitation.
Al Ahly doctor Ahmed Abou-Abla told the media in Egypt that Percy Tau suffered a hamstring injury.
The former Brighton and Hove Albion winger has since started his rehabilitation in Cairo.
This is a latest setback for Tau who has not enjoyed a clean bill of health since he joined the Reds from Brighton in England last November.
There were encouraging signs that the former Sundowns winger was hitting his peak form.
Tau had had scored in back-to-back games, including on Sunday when he fired in a from a rebound to give Al Ahly the lead. Al Ahly won the game 3-0.
He missed two chances to score more goals, including the last one which saw him slipping and getting injured.
Tau has featured in five of Al Ahly’s six domestic league games and scored twice.
The two goals should have been good news for Bafana Bafana coach Hugo Broos who was worried over Tau’s lack of game-time.
Broos had urged Tau to consider joining another team in the January transfer window.
Al Ahly coach Marcel Koller had last week praised Tau following his decent display against Ghazl El-Mahalla.
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