Giovanni Leoni receives treatment on the pitch, with Andoni Iraola inset
(Photos by Stu Forster and Jan Kruger/Getty Images)
Andoni Iraola has admitted that it’s taking longer than he expected for Giovanni Leoni to return from his ACL injury.
The Italian defender has now been out of action for 13 months and counting, having not played since suffering that devastating body blow on his debut for Liverpool in a Carabao Cup win over Southampton.
Although the 19-year-old has been working hard on his rehabilitation behind the scenes and there had been hopes of a return to team training during the recent international window, that stepping stone now looks set to be pushed back by at least another month.
Leoni return delayed yet again
Speaking to the media on Thursday, Iraola was asked how close Leoni is to finally returning to action, and the head coach had some frustrating news on the centre-back.
The Basque told reporters (via liverpoolfc.com): “It’s taking more time than we wanted. The planning was to train with the team in this past international break [but] probably it’s going to be in the next international break, so we’ve lost one month in the process.
“Giovanni’s injury, I wasn’t here but talking to the medical department, it was not just an ACL. It was a bad injury; a lot of things around the knee were involved apart from the ACL.
Giovanni Leoni passes the ball
(Photo by Stu Forster/Getty Images)
“He has to be very confident. The rehab process has to be very careful with him and we want to make sure once he comes to the team, he stays there in a good place.
“It’s true that we’ve had, not a setback, but a little bit of a delay, if you want. The plan now is he starts in the next break. It’s not that far but it’s a little bit later than we expected, yes.”
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Liverpool must be cautious with Leoni’s return
From Iraola’s update, it’d seem that the best-case scenario is that Leoni resumes team training during the international window in mid-November, which’d likely mean the earliest he’d be back playing is the weeks leading into Christmas.
That’d effectively be another half-season out injured on top of the full one that the 19-year-old has already missed, and even when he finally makes his long-awaited return, it’ll inevitably take him a few matches to properly get back up to speed.
As the head coach pointed out, the nature of the injury means that no chances can be taken with clearing him for a return before he’s fully ready. If that extend the wait into the New Year, so be it.
In the meantime, Liverpool are adequately stocked at centre-back with Virgil van Dijk, Jeremy Jacquet, Ronald Araujo and Joe Gomez, so there’s no need to rush Leoni back prematurely, as brilliant as it’ll be to have him back.
Let’s hope he can resume team training next month and that, if the moment is right, we might see him back in action before the end of 2026.