Ahmed Elmohamady scores the first goal for Hull City against Chelsea during their English Premier League soccer match at the KC Stadium, Hull, England, Sunday, March 22, 2015 (Photo: Reuters)
Hull City, the team where Egyptian winger Ahmed Elmohamady has scored two league goals with this season, started the season competing in Europe for the first time in its history, and could end it by dropping out of the English Premier League.
Elmohamady, 27, is one of the Premier League's most consistent performers this term. He has featured in all of Hull's 34 league matches so far and was substituted only once.
The Egyptian international first appeared in the English Premier League's 2011 season coming from Egypt's outfit ENPPI.
He managed to maintain a regular place in Hull City's squad this season since joining them on a permanent basis from Sunderland in 2013.
The offseason last year was full of optimism for the northeast club, which spent freely in the summer transfer window and was buoyant after qualifying for the Europa League through reaching the FA Cup final.
However, the side managed by former Manchester United defender Steve Bruce has struggled to meet rising expectations and fell into the bottom three last weekend. Hull has two games to escape relegation - and its chances are bleak.
Hull is third from bottom, above already-relegated Burnley and Queens Park Rangers, and two points from safety with games remaining away to Tottenham and at home to Manchester United.
''We have got a mountain to climb,'' said Bruce, who last summer broke the club's transfer record to sign Uruguay striker Abel Hernandez and also brought in Hatem Ben Arfa, Mohamed Diame and Gaston Ramirez - big names for a club the size of Hull - to bolster the squad for a season in Europe.
That didn't work out, though - Hull didn't even progress past the Europa League qualifiers.
Of the four other teams battling to avoid the drop, Leicester, Aston Villa and Sunderland have started to pick up form and victories. Leicester, for example, has won six of its last seven matches to climb off last place and move three points clear of trouble.
Newcastle, which is fourth to last, is the side most likely to get dragged down if Hull can earn an unlikely win in its final games. Newcastle visits QPR on Saturday and finishes at home to mid-table West Ham.
With the title wrapped up and the Champions League qualifiers all but confirmed, most of the focus in the last two weeks of the Premier League will be on the fight to avoid relegation.
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