Giovanni Leoni remains a forgotten figure at Liverpool, with supporters having to wait a little longer to see the defender return to action.
The 19-year-old suffered an ACL injury on his Liverpool debut against Southampton in the Carabao Cup in September last year.
He has spent the past year working with the club’s medical team at the AXA Training Centre and is now edging closer to a return to training.
However, plans for Leoni to rejoin the group during the September/October international break were postponed until November as Liverpool continue to take a cautious approach to his recovery.
Iraola told his pre-Brentford press conference on Thursday: “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.
“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.”
Patience will be key when Leoni returns to training, with Liverpool keen to manage his workload carefully. According to the Daily Mail, the centre-back will not participate in every session and will be eased back gradually.
Leoni could also feature for Rob Page’s Under-21 side to build up his fitness before returning to first-team action. The original plan was for the teenager to resume training in late September or mid-October, but his return has been delayed several times.
Having spent more than a year recovering from the cruciate ligament injury sustained on his Liverpool debut, Leoni will now have to wait at least a few more weeks before rejoining first-team training.
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