NewsArne Slot issues Giovanni Leoni injury update

The 18-year-old saw his Reds debut end in cruel fashion on Tuesday evening at Anfield during a 2-1 Carabao Cup victory over Southampton.

Leoni landed awkwardly following a challenge on the touchline in the 81st minute and required the help of medical staff in leaving the field of play.

Slot reported immediately post-match that the Italian would require further tests to gain a full diagnosis of the problem, which has now shown he faces a long-term spell on the sidelines.

Slot told reporters on Friday morning at the AXA Training Centre: "He is not in a good place, of course, because he tore his ACL and it means he will be out for a year.

"Being so young and coming to a new country and playing so well in your first game... it's very hard to take the positive side.

"There's never a positive side - but you always try to look at a positive side and that is that he is still so young, so he has so many years still to go after he recovers from a terrible injury like that."

Slot was asked if will be useful for Leoni to have the support of teammates at Liverpool who have recovered from similar injuries and shown it is possible to return to the same level as before.

"I think that last thing definitely helps and we have some examples of that with Virgil [van Dijk] and Joe [Gomez], and there are a lot of examples all around the world," said the head coach.

"That's why I said the positive thing is that he is still 18, so he still has a lot of time to go. If you get an injury like that when you are close to your retirement it makes it much more difficult maybe. But in both situations it's far from ideal.

"I think the main and most important thing is the surgeons that are going to do the surgery, then second of all the ones that do the recovery, the rehab, with him.

"But then it's always nice if you can do this in a surrounding with players who have lived through this as well, they can give you the right energy maybe in certain moments.

"And I think our players already showed in the last two days a lot of compassion towards him and they will not stop doing that in the upcoming year."