Young centre half Giovanni Leoni was given his Liverpool debut on Tuesday against Southampton in the League Cup, and the 18-year-old Italian who arrived over the summer from Parma late in the transfer window impressed with his composed defending and smart positioning.
Unfortunately, he also suffered a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee, collapsing in obvious pain in the 80th minute and having to be stretchered off the pitch. Scans have since confirmed a serious ACL injury, and while
the club isn’t yet setting a timeline it is likely to be a season-ending injury.
The best case scenario for a return from a ruptured ACL is six to nine months. It typically takes longer to fully recover. However, the good news is that while in the past ACL injuries often had career-long ramifications, increasingly it is an injury players are able to overcome entirely with time.
Liverpool will now be looking at their defensive depth rather nervously and hoping it holds until at least January, with Ibrahima Konaté and Joe Gomez—the two players ahead of Leoni on the depth chart—both having their own worrying injury histories.
Meanwhile, changes to Champions League registration rules allowing for the replacement of players with long-term injuries mean that unregistered forward Federico Chiesa could be drafted in to replace Leoni in Liverpool’s Champions League squad ahead of their match next week against Galatasaray.
