Liverpool's defensive rebuild still waits on Giovanni Leoni
Andoni Iraola says Leoni's return to first-team training has slipped by a month, a delay that keeps Liverpool short of options at centre-back heading into a congested run of fixtures.
Andoni Iraola has confirmed that Giovanni Leoni's recovery from a serious knee injury has been pushed back by roughly a month, with the teenage centre-back now not expected to rejoin first-team training until the next international break, Football Italia reported.
The Liverpool head coach made the admission in his pre-match press conference ahead of the Premier League fixture against Brentford, according to Football Italia.
"It's taking more time than we wanted," Iraola said. "The planning was to train with the team in this past international break [but] probably it's going to be in the next international break, so we've lost one month in the process."
Leoni suffered the injury on his Liverpool debut in September's EFL Cup third-round tie against Southampton, stretchered off in the 81st minute under Arne Slot, and has not featured since, Football Italia reported. The Guardian's Andy Hunter described it as the latest setback in a recovery that has already run well beyond a year.
Why this is more than a routine ACL timeline
Iraola was explicit that the injury was not a straightforward anterior cruciate ligament tear. "It was not just an ACL – it was a bad injury, a lot of things around the knee were involved apart from the ACL," he said, per Football Italia.
That distinction matters for how a club manages a young defender's reintegration. A clean ACL rupture has a relatively mapped rehabilitation arc; damage to surrounding structures complicates load management, changes the risk calculus around high-speed running and duelling, and explains why Iraola is framing this as a delay rather than a setback.
The coach's emphasis on caution, rather than hurry, is the more significant tactical signal. He wants Leoni to arrive back in training "in a good place" and stay there, which suggests Liverpool are prepared to sacrifice short-term squad depth at centre-back to avoid a recurrence that would cost far more time.
The gap this leaves in Liverpool's build-up
Liverpool paid Parma a fee in the region of €35m plus add-ons for Leoni in summer 2025, a significant outlay for an 18-year-old who had made just 17 Serie A appearances the previous season, Football Italia reported. The size of that investment reflects how highly the club rated his profile: a centre-back comfortable enough on the ball to be trusted inside a possession-based structure, rather than purely a stopper reliant on aerial duels and last-ditch defending.
Iraola's own sides have typically asked centre-backs to step into midfield lines and help progress the ball under pressure, which is why a technically capable defender of Leoni's age was worth the fee. Without him available, Liverpool's rotation options at the back are shallower than the squad's overall transfer outlay would suggest, and any fresh knock to an existing centre-back carries more weight than it otherwise would.
The delay also affects squad planning around the press. A settled central defensive pairing that can split to receive the ball and resist an opponent's first line of pressure is central to how Iraola wants his back line to function in transition. Leoni's continued absence means that structure has to be built, for now, without the player signed specifically to anchor it long-term.
What the next month looks like
Iraola's phrasing left no room for ambiguity about the revised schedule: Leoni's return to group training is now targeted for the next international break, roughly a month later than originally planned. The club has given no fresh timeline beyond that point for when he might be considered for matchday involvement.
Liverpool continue in the Premier League against Brentford without him, still managing their defensive options around a player who has not featured since last September. The next update is likely to come only once that training return is confirmed, rather than before it.