The Egyptian has made just six appearances in all competitions under Jose Mourinho this season and is one of a number of names on the Nerazzurri’s January wish list

Inter could attempt to negotiate a deal for out-of-favour Chelsea winger Mohamed Salah in January, manager Roberto Mancini has revealed.

Salah has made just six appearances in all competitions under Jose Mourinho this season, having found himself below Eden Hazard, Oscar, Willian, Andre Schurrle and Ramires in the Stamford Bridge pecking order.

And Mancini, who has returned to an Inter side struggling in Serie A, is refusing to rule out a winter move for the Egyptian, along with Liverpool’s Lucas Leiva and several other targets.

“Within its limits, the club gave me full availability, which is nice to hear,” Mancini told Gazzetta dello Sport.

“[Mohamed] Salah is a very interesting young prospect. [Ivan] Perisic is a good player, he has the right profile – but he isn’t easy to get to, either.

“[Lucas] Leiva is a big name too, his experience would come in handy. But he’s with Liverpool, so we’ll see. Clubs don’t give away their players that easy.

“Anything can happen in football. [Ezequiel] Lavezzi is a big name, he knows Serie A but he belongs to Paris-Saint German now. Perhaps in June, who knows?”

The Australian goalkeeper was drafted into the first team to face Man Utd and is hoping to impress enough to earn a contract extension with the Reds

Brad Jones has vowed to do everything possible to hang onto his starting spot after displacing Simon Mignolet as Liverpool’s first-choice goalkeeper, paying no attention to speculation linking the club with an upgrade.

The Belgian was axed for the Reds’ trip to Manchester United – a game which they lost 3-0 – with his Australian counterpart retained in goal for matches against Arsenal and Bournemouth, conceding six times in his three appearances so far.

Jones, though, is desperate to cling onto the No.1 jersey – with Liverpool having been linked with the likes of Petr Cech and Guillermo Ochoa to replace him – and hopes that his performances can earn a new contract, with his current deal expiring next summer.

“It is just up to me to go out and do my best and hold on to it for as long as I can,” the 32-year-old keeper told reporters. “As long as that continues, great. If it is a couple of weeks, a couple of months, we will see. I just have to make the most of it when I can.

“Every game is an opportunity. The manager hasn’t said anything. I’ll just play each game and hope that I do well enough to play the next one. I haven’t had an awful lot to do in the last three games. I have tried to help the team in certain situations. I have tried to play as the manager wants me to do. I have just got to go on doing that.

“In football and with goalkeepers, circumstances dictate how much you do and when you do it. Sometimes you might not have a chance to do anything. I just try and play as best as I can in every aspect.”

He added: “Everyone wants to link other players with us and that is probably not going to change. We will get linked with another 20 goalkeepers now but I won’t let it affect me. Every game that I play, I will just go out and do my best. Do I want to stay? Of course I do.”

Though Jones is locked in a fierce battle with Mignolet for a starting spot, he nevertheless leapt to the defence of his team-mate, arguing that the Belgian has been unfairly criticised this season.

“That is what TV pundits do, isn’t it? They pick holes in people,” he remarked. “They pick holes in teams and point out things. ‘You could have done this … you could have done that’ … a lot of the time, it can be unjustified. Sometimes it is justified.

“Football is all about different situations. Certain people like to justify their position by jumping on the bandwagon and saying something that gets in the press. It is up to them. That is their job.”

The striker was handed a one-match suspension, and fined £25,000, after posting a controversial image on Instagram, but his “naivety and apology” reduced the punishment

The Football Association (FA) has revealed that Mario Balotelli’s remorse over posting a controversial image spared him a longer ban.

The Liverpool striker was deemed to have committed an aggravated breach of FA Rule E3 [2] after posting a picture on Instagram and Twitter containing potentially offensive language referring to “ethnic origin and/or colour and/or race and/or nationality and/or religion or belief”.

Balotelli was handed a one-match suspension, fined £25,000 (€31,800) and ordered to attend an education programme.

The Italian received criticism for the picture that contained video game character ‘Super Mario’ and a series of racial stereotypes.

The image was later taken down and Balotelli issued an apology for his actions, stating that the post was intended to be “anti-racist” and in good humour.

On Tuesday, the FA published a statement outlining the written reasons behind the striker’s sanction, citing his naivety and his apology as mitigating factors.

“Mr Balotelli had accepted the charge but had submitted requests for leniency as part of his plea in mitigation,” the statement read.

“Mr Balotelli added that he deeply regretted posting the image and that he had removed it as soon as it was brought to his attention by other users that the image could cause offence.

“He said that he was shocked to find the image was offensive because, out of sheer naivety, he had not understood the implication of the comments which appeared on the image.

“The Regulatory Commission had the following evidence before them: A memo to Mr Ives [of the FA Judicial Services Department] from Amina Graham of the FA’s Governance and Regulation Division, in which she said that, ordinarily, a sporting sanction of 2-3 matches would be appropriate for this type of offence but that the FA accepted the forceful mitigation presented by Mr Balotelli and that this could enable us to exercise our discretion more favourably.”