Virgil van Dijk has been a natural mentor and sounding board ever since the initial hours after Leoni sustained the injury.
The Liverpool captain can empathise and encourage his younger colleague, having emerged from his own lengthy ACL recovery in 2020-21.
“He helped me a lot,” says Leoni.
His face lights up, meanwhile, when he describes the impact of Reds fans’ support for him across the past 12 months.
“They have always been with me,” the 19-year-old beams. “I can feel that we did this journey as a rehab together, because even if they didn’t see me, I received a lot of messages on Instagram, on everything.
“Without them I couldn’t be where I am now. So, I’m really glad to have that.
“I didn’t expect that but as I told you, I’m really glad to have them and I can’t wait to give them a lot of good days and games together – to win, to do a lot of good things together.”
In Leoni’s own words, he has now reached the stage of his rehab where he can ‘see the light at the end of the tunnel’.
This interview is taking place in the last days of Liverpool’s recent pre-season tour of the USA, where the Italian maintained his programme with running sessions and ball work.
The imagined moments that kept him going during the tougher days of recovery have become achievable targets to be realised.
“Now I feel really good,” Leoni reports. “After 10 months, I’m back on the pitch alone. But I feel really good, in the last weeks I felt really good on the pitch.
“The knee is looking good and I'm feeling the knee really good, so I can’t wait to be back with the team as soon as possible and then come back to play games in front of the fans.
“Now I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I’m not with the team, but I think in a short time now I can be back with the team.
“Then we will see how the knee will respond and how I will feel to be back playing games.”
The subject of playing again, the prospect of putting on his boots and walking out to be part of a fixture, draws the most instinctive of responses from Leoni.
We ask, do you think every day about what that will feel like?