Liverpool star set to be unavailable for ‘around a year’, confirms Arne Slot

Liverpool have been handed a huge blow ahead of their Premier League clash with Crystal Palace as manager Arne Slot confirmed that Giovanni Leoni will miss almost a year of football after tearing his anterior cruciate ligament.

Leoni, who joined Liverpool this summer, made his debut against Southampton in the Carabao Cup third round on Tuesday. He impressed in the encounter, but it quickly turned into one to forget, as he was stretchered off in the 78th minute with his left knee strapped up.

After the match against Southampton, Slot said the 18-year-old would require further tests to gain a full diagnosis of the problem. Speaking to reporters on Friday morning at the AXA Training Center, Slot provided an update on the injury sustained by the defender, saying:

"Leoni tore his ACL, so he will be out for around a year. New club, new country, playing so well in your first game, there are no positives, but he is still so young but he has so many years left to come after such a terrible injury."

In the aftermath of the injury, Giovanni Leoni has now been replaced by Federico Chiesa in Liverpool’s Champions League squad for the league phase.

Arne Slot says Liverpool teammates will help Leoni through recovery

Speaking further, Arne Slot emphasized the importance of senior players within his squad helping Leoni through recovery after picking up a potentially season-ending injury. When asked if it will be useful for Leoni to have the support of teammates at Liverpool who have recovered from similar injuries and shown it is possible to return to the same level as before, Slot responded:

"I think that last thing definitely helps and we have some examples of that with Virgil [van Dijk] and Joe [Gomez], and there are a lot of examples all around the world," said the head coach. That's why I said the positive thing is that he is still 18, so he still has a lot of time to go. If you get an injury like that when you are close to your retirement it makes it much more difficult maybe. But in both situations, it's far from ideal.

"I think the main and most important thing is the surgeons that are going to do the surgery, then second of all the ones that do the recovery, the rehab, with him. But then it's always nice if you can do this in a surrounding with players who have lived through this as well, they can give you the right energy maybe 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."

Liverpool are currently sitting atop the Premier League table with 15 points after five matches. They are the only team with a 100 percent record in the league this season.