In heartbreaking news amidst a very strong debut, 18-year-old Giovanni Leoni tore his ACL in the 81st minute of the League Cup match against Southampton. The young Italian will now face a year on the sidelines as he goes through the treatment and rehabbing process.
Speaking to the press ahead of the weekend’s game against Crystal Palace, Liverpool head coach Arne Slot underscored how terrible it is that the young player saw his career so cruelly stalled early on:
“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 from a terrible injury like that.”
Slot and the press did touch on the positive aspect of community, with other Liverpool players having gone through similar injury and recovery processes, specifically in the case of Virgil Van Dijk, who has shown that a player can return to the top level following such an injury:
“I think that last thing definitely helps and we have some examples of that with Virgil [van Dijk] and Joe [Gomez], and there are a lot of examples all around the world.
“That’s why I said the positive thing is that he is still 18, so he still has a lot of time to go. 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.
“And 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.”
On his social media, the young defender gave thanks for the support and stated his dedication to recovery.
We wish Leoni luck and support in his long road to recovery.
