Arne Slot confirms Giovanni Leoni has torn his ACL – and provides update on Isak’s fitness | OneFootball

Liverpool boss Arne Slot has confirmed that defender Giovanni Leoni has suffered an ACL injury which is set to keep him out for around a year.

The Italian defender. who joined the Reds from Parma this summer, suffered the injury on his first start for the club in their 2-1 Carabao Cup win over Southampton.

“He’s not in a good place, of course,” Slot said.

“He tore his ACL which means that he will be out for around a year.

“Being so young, coming to a new country, playing so well in your first game, it’s very hard to take the positives. You always try to look at the positive side and that is that he is still so young. He still has so many years to go after he recovers from a terrible injury like that.”

But the Reds boss insists he has enough options in central defence to cope with Leoni’s injury.

“We have more than enough options to replace, if needed, a player at the centre-back position because of course we have Virgil (van Dijk), Joe (Gomez) and Ibou (Konate) and other options if needed,” he said.

Record signing Alexander Isak scored his first goal for the club in the win over Southampton but Slot says he is still being cautious with the striker.

“It depends on the pace and intensity of the game but it might be a bit too much,” he said when asked if he can play 90 minutes.

“But not only that, also for the long term.

“I don’t think it’s smart to play him 90 yet.

“But he’s further into his pre-season now and normally after two or three weeks in pre-season, players go to 60 or 70 minutes and in some clubs they even bring them to 90 but if you look at our pre-season it’s mainly 60 to 70 minutes.”