Giovanni Leoni, Liverpool\u2019s summer signing from Parma for a reported \u00a330 million including add-ons, faces a potentially lengthy spell on the sidelines after reports he suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament on his debut against Southampton. Leoni was eventually stretchered off and manager Arne Slot admitted post-match that he was \u201choping for the best,\u201d while the Daily Mail and Sky Italy report that the club\u2019s worst fears have been confirmed.<\/p>\n
No official timescale has been announced and Liverpool have not commented publicly. If the injury is an ACL tear, Leoni could be looking at a recovery period that typically ranges from six to nine months, while some cases take over a year to return to playing action.<\/p>\n
Leoni had produced a strong first appearance, completing 88 of his 91 passes (97%) alongside Joe Gomez in the centre of defence. Slot described the performance as \u201cgreat\u201d, but his post-match focus quickly shifted to the extent of the injury. \u201cOf course, he is down because for him it didn’t feel good immediately, but this is something now we have to assess,” Slot told his post-match press conference at Anfield. “Normally these things don’t happen in five to 10 minutes and you have to wait for tomorrow to see how he comes in and then maybe do an MRI scan to know more about how serious it is.<\/p>\n
“Normally the emotions of a player tell you a lot. I saw during the weekend a player in the Dutch Eredivisie who went out completely in tears\u2014Ruben van Bommel, by the way, of PSV\u2014and a day later it proved to be that it was right.<\/p>\n
“Let\u2019s hope for the best.\u201d<\/p>\n
Slot had rotated Virgil van Dijk and Ibrahima Konat\u00e9 out of his starting lineup, leaving Van Dijk, Konat\u00e9 and Gomez as Liverpool\u2019s only other recognised centre backs. The club now faces a congested schedule that includes Premier League, Champions League and Carabao Cup fourth round fixtures. Milos Kerkez replaced Leoni for the remainder of the game but is unlikely to be seen as a long-term option in central defence. Waturu Endo has covered in past injury crises and could be called upon again, while Andy Robertson remains another left-sided possibility. Leoni\u2019s absence also increases the chance Liverpool will return for Marc G\u00faehi in January after a \u00a335 million move collapsed on Deadline Day when Crystal Palace could not find a replacement, though offers from abroad such as Real Madrid or Barcelona could emerge in January.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Giovanni Leoni faces prolonged absence after reports of a torn ACL suffered on his debut. In 2025\/26<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3046,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[175,969],"tags":[1073,220,299],"class_list":["post-3047","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-liverpool","category-premier-league","tag-acl-injury","tag-andy-robertson","tag-arne-slot"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3047","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3047"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3047\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3046"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}