Serious Liverpool injury blow as £26m signing tears his ACL and faces months out

Liverpool's new signing Giovanni Leoni faces a significant spell out after tearing his anterior cruciate ligament on his debut against Southampton on Tuesday night.

Leoni, 18, signed for £26m from Parma this summer but left the field on a stretcher at Anfield after 81 minutes in the Carabao Cup.

He had enjoyed an impressive debut, with Reds boss Arne Slot describing his performance as 'great' in a post-match interview. 

Speaking about Leoni's injury, the Dutchman added: 'He's down because for him it didn't feel good immediately. 

'But this is something now we have to assess and normally these things don't happen in five to 10 minutes, you have to wait until tomorrow to see how he comes in and then maybe do an MRI scan to know more. 

'Normally the emotions of a player tell you a lot, I saw a player in the Dutch Eredivisie at the weekend who went out completely in tears and it proved to be that he was right (that he had suffered a bad injury), but let's hope for the best.'   

Liverpool are offering no comment on Leoni's injury but it is understood to be an ACL tear. 

The club are believed to have been waiting for the Italian defender's swelling to settle before a proper diagnosis was settled upon.

The injury could mean that Federico Chiesa is drafted into Liverpool's Champions League squad. The Italian forward was left out by Arne Slot but, as Nottingham Forest have done with Oleksander Zinchenko, Chiesa could now come in to replace Leoni.

The Italian is another who impressed during Tuesday's Carabao Cup tie against Southampton, providing two assists, first, for Alexander Isak and later Hugo Ekitike. 

Chiesa has endured a difficult spell since moving to Merseyside from Juventus but has looked more up-to-speed this season.

It's something Slot acknowledged post-match as he singled out the 27-year-old for praise. 

'I think that's what you want to see (Chiesa's performance),' the Liverpool boss said, 'I can accept completely that a team that plays for the first time together, players that haven’t played for a long time, that they don’t play as a team perfectly. But what I always want to see is players that try and work hard.

'So I said at half-time, for me it is completely not a coincidence that Federico picked the ball and assisted on the first (goal) because he was the one, in my opinion, that was most involved in the game, tried the most, worked the hardest. 

'And then it wasn’t a coincidence again that he was the man that made a deep run, great ball by Robbo (Andy Robertson), by the way – who also has won so much at this club and also understands how to play this game: not underestimate it, just always be ready to play.'

Liverpool face a difficult trip south to face Crystal Palace on Saturday afternoon where they will be without both Ekitike and Leoni.