Report: What Liverpool plan to do with Giovanni Leoni 12 months on from devastating ACL rupture
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September 22nd 2026, 11:15 (Photo by Jan Kruger/Getty Images) Tomorrow marks one year to the day since Giovanni Leoni suffered a devastating ACL injury on his senior debut for Liverpool in a Carabao Cup victory over Southampton.The Italian defender hasn’t played since that night at Anfield 12 months ago, and it’s been a long road to recovery for the 19-year-old, who said in early August that he could finally see ‘light at the end of the tunnel’.Daily Mail reporter Lewis Steele recently indicated that the teenager is ‘stepping up his recovery’, describing it as a ‘small step’ in the right direction but not specifying any timeframe for a hopeful return date.Liverpool will take patient approach with LeoniOn Tuesday morning, Pete O’Rourke reported for Football Insider that Liverpool won’t rush Leoni back from injury or take any unnecessary risks with him after being sidelined for a whole year.With the Reds well-stocked in the centre-back department at present after Joe Gomez’s return to action, Andoni Iraola has the luxury of being able to ease the Italian youngster back into the fold, so long as no further injuries strike in that area of the pitch. Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list for news you can trustLiverpool right to take it slowly with Leoni If Liverpool have the leeway for a soft relaunch with Leoni, rather than needing to throw him back in at the deep end, then that’s absolutely the most sensible approach.
Having already missed an entire year of his fledgling career, the 19-year-old will naturally take a little while to fully get back up to matchday speed, so bedding him in with substitute outings of increasing lengths would seem to be the ideal strategy. It’s unclear yet as to when exactly he’ll be fit enough to play again, but Iraola might privately be eyeing domestic cup games as a potential route back into action for the teenager, or possible minutes off the bench in Premier League games if the Reds have the luxury of a commanding lead.
Even once he’s back up to fitness, Leoni could face a battle to break up the increasingly imperious centre-back pairing of Virgil van Dijk and Jeremy Jacquet, with the latter having the kind of start to life at Anfield that we thought the Italian might have until his devastating injury struck. Whenever our number 15 is able to resume playing, his return will be welcomed warmly by Liverpool fans who’ve seen all too little of him thus far because of cruel fate.