Egypt has denied reports that striker Emad Meteb was taken to hospital after a fist fight outside the team’s hotel in Doha last night ahead of today’s friendly with Brazil.

“We were surprised by the silly gossip when we woke up this morning,” the Pharaohs’ doctor Tarek Soliman told Ahram Online.

Qatari news channel Al-Jazeera reported Meteb had exchanged blows with a stranger near the team's hotel and had been taken to the White Stars hospital. No more details were revealed.

Egypt’s technical stuff had already been hit with other erroneous reports, including the death of their Borussia Dortmund attacker Mohamed Zidan.