Giovanni Leoni's planned return to Liverpool training has been delayed, with Andoni Iraola revealing the defender's injury is more complicated than initially reported.
The 19-year-old centre-back has been absent since sustaining serious ACL damage on his debut in the League Cup win over Southampton in September 2025. The £26million summer arrival from Parma had been expected to resume full training during the recent international break.
However, Liverpool are refusing to rush Leoni's recovery, and the Italian is now not anticipated to rejoin the main group until next month.
Iraola explains delay
"It is taking more time than we wanted," said Reds head coach Iraola. "With Gio, the plan was to train with the team in this past international break. It is probably now going to be the next international break, so we have lost one month in the process."
"Giovanni's injury, I wasn't here but talking to the medical department it wasn't just an ACL. It was a bad injury, a lot of things around the knee were involved apart from the ACL."
Iraola stressed the need for caution in the rehabilitation process. "I think he has to be very confident in the rehab and the process has to be very careful with him. We want to make sure once he comes to the team he stays there in a good place. It's true we've had a little bit of not a setback but a delay, if you want. The plan now is he starts in the next break. It's not that far off, but a little bit later than we expected."
Other absentees ahead of Brentford
Leoni, like fellow long-term injury victims Conor Bradley and Hugo Ekitike, will remain absent for the upcoming fixtures. Liverpool play their third match in 29 days in the Premier League at Brentford on Saturday.
The game comes less than 72 hours after their 6-3 Champions League win at LASK, in which Iraola rotated his squad with young duo Trey Nyoni and Lewis Koumas both making their first-ever start in the competition.
Wataru Endo and Federico Chiesa will come into consideration at the weekend having been ineligible for Europe. However, Liverpool could again be without Alexander Isak, Cody Gakpo and Dominik Szoboszlai, with the trio having missed the last two games through injury.
"It's early for us to say," said Iraola on Thursday. "We still have tomorrow training. They weren't ready for Wednesday night and we have to wait and see. It's still very early but like the same way I said when they weren't available for the previous games, I leave the chance open (that they could play)."
