Egypt's plan to hand the captain's armband to Mohamed Salah to apologise for the FIFA Best awards debacle has been foiled by the current skipper.
Salah became embroiled in a fresh row with the Egyptian FA after they failed to vote in the awards last month. The body did vote but they were not registered towards the count.
The Liverpool star, who finished fourth in the men's Best Player award, raised alarms of a possible withdrawal from Egypt's team after removing all references on his social media accounts.
And now his country's attempt to win him over by making him captain has hit a stumbling block.
'Yes, [Ahmed] Fathi was requested to give Egypt's captain armband to Mohamed Salah,' Fathi's agent Nader Shawky told ON Sport channel, as reported by KingFut.
'Fathi was left surprised by this request and turned it down. I think he will not continue with the national team if captaincy was taken off him.
'My personal thought is that Salah himself will reject taking the captain armband from Fathi.'
Defender Fathi wore the armband in Egypt's 1-0 friendly win over Botswana earlier this month.
Salah, who has scored 41 goals in 67 caps for Egypt, did seem to reassure fans that he would not hold the awards mix-up against his national team with a post on social media.
The 27-year-old tweeted: 'No matter how they try to change my love for you and your people they will not.'