Giovanni Leoni is closing in on a return to first-team action for Liverpool after suffering an ACL injury on his debut last September. The 19-year-old Italian is now training outside and travelled with the squad to the United States to continue his recovery.
Positive progress in rehabilitation
Leoni, who sustained the injury late in a League Cup win over Southampton, has been out for over 10 months. He expressed optimism about his recovery, stating: “Now I feel really good. After 10 months, I’m back on the pitch alone. But I feel really good, in the last weeks I felt really good on the pitch.”
He added: “The knee is looking good and I'm feeling the knee really good, so I can’t wait to be back with the team as soon as possible and then come back to play games in front of the fans.”
Working under new coach Iraola
Leoni will return under new head coach Andoni Iraola, who replaced Arne Slot in May. Iraola has already held discussions with Leoni and conducted analysis together. Leoni praised the Spaniard: “He’s a really good coach but before [that] he is a really good person. You can speak with him and you can understand the way that he wants to play. I can’t wait to play under him.”
Support from teammates and fans
Leoni has drawn support from captain Virgil van Dijk, who suffered the same injury in 2020/21, and fellow long-term absentees. He said: “He helped me a lot. To be fair, (I’m close with) everyone. But I can say that now I’m spending a lot of time with Hugo [Ekitike], Stefan [Bajcetic], Conor – because we did a little bit of rehab together.”
Reflecting on the mental challenge, he said: “When I had that moment in the first game, in my debut, I said, ‘Why [did this happen] to me?’ But I don’t think that is the best thing to say to yourself. So I tried to change [my] mind and to say, ‘OK, it’s happening to me so I have to do something to become better than before.’”
He also thanked supporters: “They (the supporters) have always been with me (too). I can feel that we did this journey as a rehab together, because even if they didn’t see me, I received a lot of messages on Instagram, on everything. Without them I couldn’t be where I am now.”
