Arne Slot confirms Giovanni Leoni lay-off
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Arne Slot has confirmed Liverpool will be without Giovanni Leoni for up to a year.
Leoni was stretchered off late on in Tuesday’s Carabao Cup third round win over Southampton after landing awkwardly following a touchling challenge.
The Italian defender appeared in visible distress after the incident, which came in the final minutes of his competitive debut for the Premier League champions.
And Slot revealed on Friday that Leoni, 18, is now set to be sidelined for the next 12 months after suffering an ACL tear which has curtailed his debut season at Anfield.
“He is not in a good place, of course, because he tore his ACL and it means he will be out for a year,” said the Liverpool head coach.
“Being so young and coming to a new country and 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 a positive side and that is that he is still so young, so he has so many years still to go after he recovers.
“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.
“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.”
Slot also refuted suggestions that Hugo Ekitike has been fined following his red card for removing his shirt when celebrating Liverpool’s winner against the Saints.
He added: “If disciplined means that I spoke to him then it’s disciplined – but I don’t think that is disciplined.
“Disciplined means a fine – and that he didn’t get [one].
It wasn’t very smart what he did, what he recognised himself immediately straight away,.
“He’s young.
Players of all ages do make mistakes and that’s what he did in this situation as well.