'It’s very hard to take the positives': Liverpool boss Slot confirms Leoni ACL injury
Liverpool's Giovanni Leoni during the Carabao Cup third round match at Anfield.
Liverpool boss Arne Slot has confirmed 18-year-old centre-half Giovanni Leoni suffered an anterior cruciate ligament injury on his club debut in the Carabao Cup win over Southampton.
Leoni, a £26m signing from Parma in the summer, hurt himself in a tackle late on after impressing in the 2-1 win over Will Still's side and will now miss up to a year of football.
"He is not in a good place because he tore his ACL which means he will be out around a year," Slot said.
"Being so young and coming to a new country and playing so well in your first game, it’s very hard to take the positives.
"There is never a positive side but you try to look at that and that is that he is still so young and he has so many years still to go after he recovers from a terrible injury.”
Writing in a post on his Instagram page, Italian teen Leoni pledged to return as soon as possible.
“I want to sincerely thank every single person who has shown me support in this difficult moment.
“It wasn’t the debut I had always dreamed of, but I will give everything to be back playing in this magical stadium as soon as possible. Thank you so much.”
Slot added that Liverpool were looking into the process of adding Federico Chiesa to their Champions League squad in place of Leoni.
“We have looked into this. I cannot tell you exactly where this process is at the moment. It is not something I do myself.
"If I am informed correctly, if a player has an injury for longer than two months then you are able to replace him - now we have to see if it’s true or not but other people are looking into that.”
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