Liverpool head coach Arne Slot has confirmed that defender Giovanni Leoni will be out for “around for a year” after tearing his anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in the side’s Carabao Cup win over Southampton with Federico Chiesa named as his replacement in the side’s Champions League squad.
Leoni, who joined Liverpool this summer from Serie A side Parma, was unable to continue late in Liverpool’s midweek cup tie and was carried off on a stretcher.
He was initially a part of Slot’s Champions League squad but his spot will now be taken by Chiesa, who registered two assists against Southampton.
“He [Leoni] is not in a good place because he tore his ACL which means he will be out around a year,” Slot said in a news conference on Friday.
“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 go to after he recovers from a terrible injury.”
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