Sadio Mane, Mohamed Salah and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang in African award running

Liverpool pair Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah are on the final three-man shortlist for the 2018 CAF African Player of the Year award.

Salah edged team-mate Mane and former Borussia Dortmund striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, who joined Arsenal in the summer, to scoop the 2017 accolade.

The same three players are again in the running for this year's award, which will be presented at a ceremony on January 8 in Dakar, the capital of Mane's home country of Senegal.

Salah and Mane both attended the 2017 ceremony after Liverpool hired a private jet to take them to and from last year's event in Ghana, which took place 24 hours before a third-round Merseyside derby FA Cup tie against Everton.

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Salah, who was already nursing an injury prior to the cup tie, did not feature against Everton but Mane ended up playing 90 minutes in a 1-0 Liverpool victory, which saw Virgil van Dijk score the winner on his debut.

This year's awards take place a day after Liverpool travel to Wolves in the FA Cup third round. They travel to Brighton in the Premier League four days later.

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