The Telegraph provides update on Giovanni Leoni injury
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He is progressing in his recovery but is not expected to return to team training this season. The Italy centre-back has been working outdoors at the AXA Training Centre since March, avoiding contact as he rebuilds knee strength.Reports earlier this month suggested he could resume team training by late April, around seven months after surgery.However, according to The Telegraph, while he has returned to grass work, he will not rejoin full training before the season ends.The report claims that: “Leoni, a £27m recruit from Parma, looked polished in that League Cup tie with Southampton but there is no date on when he will resume his Liverpool career.“The 19-year-old is doing rehabilitation work outside on the grass but he will not train with the team again this season.”Leoni enjoyed a breakthrough 2024-25 season in Serie A and earned his first senior Italy national team call-up weeks after joining Liverpool.
He will aim for a strong pre-season alongside Jeremy Jacquet, who is also sidelined with a season-ending shoulder injury.Both are viewed as part of the club’s long-term defensive core, with further encouragement coming after the Merseyside derby as Ibrahima Konate confirmed he is “close” to signing a new contract.Leoni described his anterior cruciate ligament injury as the “strongest pain” he has ever felt, but has vowed to return stronger for Liverpool. He told Gazzetta dello Sport: “As soon as I hit the ground I said to Conor Bradley, my teammate: ‘I’ve done my cruciate.’“It had never happened to me [before] but it was a strange feeling, I thought: ‘That’s it, period.’ A great, strong pain, the strongest pain I have felt in life… I believe that life reserves certain things and destiny has led me to this.
To myself, I say: ‘It must have happened to make me stronger.’“I can’t look at the long term, I only think about training my mind. I’m doing rehab, I’m in the swimming pool, the gym.“For a footballer, an injury like this can be the most difficult moment of his career but now I just want to train my head to come back stronger than before.