Arne Slot has confirmed Giovanni Leoni will miss the remainder of the season after tearing an anterior cruciate ligament on his Liverpool debut.
The 18-year-old central defender, signed from Parma final month for £26m, sustained the harm in the direction of the tip of an assured efficiency in opposition to Southampton within the Carabao Cup on Tuesday and fast issues over a prolonged layoff have been realised. Leoni, lately referred to as as much as the Italy squad for the primary time, faces surgical procedure and an in depth rehabilitation interval.
“He's not in a great place, in fact, as a result of he tore his ACL and it means he will likely be out for round a 12 months,” stated Slot on Friday. “Being so younger, coming to a brand new nation and taking part in so properly in your first sport … it's very exhausting to take the constructive facet. There's by no means a constructive facet however he's nonetheless so younger so he has a few years to go after he recovers from a horrible harm like that.”
Liverpool agreed a deal to signal Marc Guéhi from Crystal Palace on deadline day just for the Palace chair, Steve Parish, to abort the switch below stress from his supervisor, Oliver Glasner. Leoni's absence could improve the probability of the Premier League champions making one other transfer for the Palace captain in January. Slot, whose league leaders journey to Selhurst Park on Saturday, was noncommittal on whether or not he may play the remainder of the season with three specialist central defenders however insisted he didn't desire a bloated squad.
“That each one depends upon whether or not we get extra accidents and if there's an opportunity out there,” stated Slot on the prospect of January reinforcements. “However I'd not favor to go to 24, 25 gamers. If there's a scenario – and contact wooden there isn't – the place I lead a workforce that has 4 or 5 accidents all through the entire season, then it may be smarter to go to 24, 25. However current historical past with Feyenoord and final season as properly confirmed that we now have a great file till now.
“That could be a sure danger. If we now have 5 – 6 accidents on the similar time then we might find yourself with 15, 16 gamers and that will usually be troublesome. So it's a selection I wish to make however I believe it is usually a monetary selection that we as a membership should make. If we wish to hold these prime gamers, we can't have 24, 25 of them.”
Slot confirmed that Liverpool supposed so as to add Federico Chiesa to their squad record for the Champions League's league part after Leoni's harm. New Uefa guidelines permit an outfield participant unavailable for 60 days or extra to get replaced.
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Hugo Ekitiké has not been fined for the pink card in opposition to Southampton which means he misses the journey to Palace. The ahead obtained a second reserving for taking off his shirt after scoring. Slot stated of disciplining him: “I spoke to him but when disciplined means a effective then, no, he didn't get that. It wasn't sensible what he did. He recognised that right away and stated sorry to his teammates. You're allowed at this membership to make a mistake with out instantly getting fined.”
