Giovanni Leoni's return from knee injury delayed by about a month at Liverpool
Liverpool defender Giovanni Leoni will not start training with the squad until the international break starting 9 November, head coach Andoni Iraola said. The 19-year-old's knee injury from his debut involved more damage than the anterior cruciate ligament alone.
A return pushed back about a month
Liverpool head coach Andoni Iraola has revealed that the return of centre-back Giovanni Leoni has been delayed. The 19-year-old had been expected to resume team training during the previous international break, but that schedule has been put back by about a month. The plan is now for Leoni to start training with the squad in the next international break, which starts on 9 November. Iraola said the club had lost one month in the process, and he acknowledged that the timeline had slipped.
It is taking more time than we wanted.
Iraola described the new schedule as not that far off, but a little later than the club had expected. Leoni, a £26m signing from Parma in 2025, is not yet back in training, and Fanpage reported that he is working alone at the club's training centre for several more weeks.
- Leoni tears his ACL against Southampton on his debut
- Iraola confirms the return is delayed by about a month
- International break starts, the planned point for Leoni to begin training with the squad
An injury wider than the ACL
Leoni tore his anterior cruciate ligament against Southampton in September 2025, injured 81 minutes into his first game for the club. Iraola said he had not been at Liverpool when the injury happened and had relied on the medical department for the details. The medical staff found that the damage went further than the ligament itself. Iraola put it this way.
It was a bad injury, a lot of things around the knee were involved apart from the ACL.
Because of that, Liverpool has had to handle his rehabilitation with particular care. Fanpage also reported that Leoni has yet to play a league game for the club. He has also seen a change of head coach and defensive partners since he arrived, the Italian outlet noted, and Fanpage said Liverpool could have him available in 2027 for the second half of the season.
Caution over rehabilitation
Iraola said Leoni has to be very confident in his rehabilitation and that the process has to be handled carefully. He said the club wants to make sure Leoni is in a good place when he returns to the squad, and that a delay is the price of getting that right. Iraola added that the setback was not a setback so much as a delay. Liverpool is therefore prioritising a steady return over an early one, even though the wait is longer than the club wanted.
Other absences before Brentford
Dominik Szoboszlai, Alexander Isak and Cody Gakpo remain doubts for Liverpool's Premier League trip to Brentford on Saturday, 17 October. All three missed the club's last two fixtures with injuries picked up on international duty. RTE reported that all three are unlikely to be fit for the Brentford match at the very least. Leoni's delay is therefore one of several injury concerns on the Liverpool list.
