Liverpool manager Arne Slot has confirmed Giovanni Leoni is likely to miss an entire year as a result of the knee injury sustained against Southampton in midweek.
Leoni was making his first appearance for Liverpool following his £26 million ($34.8 million) switch from Parma when he went down with what was quickly revealed to be an ACL injury. The teenage defender has taken a positive stance on social media but, according to Slot, has been struggling behind the scenes.
“He’s not in a good place, of course, because he tore his ACL, which means that he will be out for around a year,” Slot told his Friday morning news conference.
“Being so young, coming to a new country, playing so well in your first game... it’s very hard to take the positive side. There’s never a positive side, but you always try to look at the positive side, and that is that he’s still so young so he has so many years still to go after he recovers from a terrible injury like that.”
Leoni will soon begin the recovery process alongside two defenders who have both been through the same injury. Virgil van Dijk and Joe Gomez have both enjoyed impressive resurgences following their own ACL injuries and Slot hopes the pair can serve as encouragement for Leoni.
“We have some examples with Virgil and Joe and there a lot of examples all over the world [of players coming back better],” the Liverpool boss continued. “That’s why I said the positive thing is he’s still 18 so there’s still a lot of time to go.
“The most important thing is the surgeons that are going to do the surgery and, second of all, the ones that do the recovery, the rehab, with him. But then it’s always nice if you can do this surrounded by players who have lived through this. They can give you the right energy in certain moments and I think our players already showed in the last two days a lot of compassion towards him, and they will not stop doing that in the upcoming year.”
Federico Chiesa Set to Join Liverpool’s Champions League Squad
Earlier this month, UEFA confirmed a change to European squad registration rules which permit clubs to replace a player diagnosed with a long-term injury in their squads for the Champions League, Europa League or Conference League.
Chelsea have already taken advantage of this rule, replacing injured midfielder Dário Essugo with on-loan Facundo Buonanotte, who was a surprising omission in the first place.
Leoni’s injury opens the door to winger Federico Chiesa, who was left out of the original squad but is now in line to be added.
“We’ve looked into this,” Slot said of Chiesa’s inclusion. “I can’t tell you exactly where that process is at the moment. That is not something I do myself, but if I am informed correctly, if a player has a longer than two month injury, you are able to replace him. That’s what they’ve told me, now we have to see if it’s true or not.”
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Giovanni Leoni Injury: Arne Slot Confirms Expected Length of Absence.
