Arne Slot confirms Liverpool star Giovanni Leoni has suffered ACL injury and reveals when defender will be back

Arne Slot has revealed that Giovanni Leoni faces a year on the sidelines having suffered an ACL injury on his Liverpool debut.

The summer signing’s Reds first outing against Southampton in the Carabao Cup on Tuesday night was cut short after an awkward fall.

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It had been an assured debut by the 18-year-old, who joined Liverpool from Parma for £26m over the summer amid suggestions he is seen as a long-term successor to Virgil van Dijk.

But his promising display was cut short as the young Italian left the field on a stretcher before the Reds closed out a 2-1 victory to progress to the fourth round.

Sources in Italy told talkSPORT that Liverpool feared Leoni has picked up an ACL injury.

And Slot has now confirmed the blow in his pre-match press conference ahead of his side’s clash at Crystal Palace on Saturday – live on talkSPORT.

He said of the youngster: “Leoni tore his ACL, so he will be out for around a year.

“New club, new country, playing so well in your first game, there are no positives.

“But he is still so young, but he has so many years left to come after such a terrible injury.”

Slot has also confirmed that Federico Chiesa has replaced Leoni in the club’s Champions League squad thanks to a little-known UEFA rule.

Leoni’s long-term could see Liverpool will assess their centre-back options ahead of the January window.

After missing out on Marc Guehi on deadline day, Liverpool were content with what the club consider to be four elite centre-backs.

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With Leoni set for a lengthy spell on the sidelines, Slot only has captain Virgil van Dijk, Ibrahima Konate and Joe Gomez at his disposal.

As is stands, Liverpool are not inclined to bid for Guehi in January, knowing the Palace captain is a free transfer next summer.

Guehi is understood to be content to see out the season and pick his next club after the 2026 World Cup.

But Liverpool could now be forced to explore another defender earlier than anticipated, although there is no guarantee they change their position on bidding for Guehi yet.

The first task is to wait on tests establishing how long Leoni will be out for, and then Liverpool’s recruitment team will decide whether another new centre-back is needed in January.

Leoni destined to be Liverpool’s next Van Dijk?

talkSPORT was told following Leoni’s arrival at Anfield that they had landed a huge coup by winning the race for the teen star.

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The Italian snubbed interest from as many as ten other Premier League clubs, including Newcastle and Tottenham, to complete his £26m Reds switch.

And Martin Semmens, the man who signed Van Dijk for Southampton and also oversaw Leoni’s development as CEO of former club Parma, says he is the perfect long-term successor to their current captain.

“Yeah, absolutely for me [Leoni is the heir to the Van Dijk throne],” Semmens told Sam Matterface, Alex Crook and Troy Deeney.

“We signed him the second year I was there in the summer… I think it was clearly the best young centre back in Italy, if not Europe.

“We sold him the vision to come to our club to play in Serie A, I think it was 17 when he started playing, and then when the right moment comes, you will go.

“There were other clubs in the Premier League that asked me about him… and I told them what I thought, and they didn’t follow through on it.

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“Five or six Premier League teams asked me. I told them he’s as good as Virgil.

“Liverpool never called me, never asked for a reference, because they’ve got such an ability to find those players.

“He’s top player. He took Lukaku out of the game. We went to Napoli needing to get a point, and he marked him out of the game. I’ve never seen anything like it – just literally knocked Lukaku over!

“So I think he’s a top player… at some point I think he’s the long-term [replacement for Van Dijk].”