Liverpool star offers 11-word injury update ahead of Chelsea clash
Liverpool already know they will be without one of their promising young players for their clash with Chelsea.
One Liverpool player has provided an injury update after suffering a major setback ahead of this weekend’s clash with Chelsea. The Blues host the league leaders on Saturday as they look to shake off some disappointing form that has seen them lose back-to-back Premier League games, while they are winless in three in the league.
Enzo Maresca’s men did manage to break their disappointing run on Tuesday night in the Champions League, though, defeating Benfica to get off the mark in that competition. Liverpool enjoyed a solid start to the season, at least in terms of results, but it has been a frustrating week for Arne Slot’s men.
They lost to Crystal Palace in the league over the weekend, and they then fell short against Galatasaray in the Champions League over in Türkiye. Slot will want to see a much better performance against Chelsea, but he will be without young summer signing Giovanni Leoni, who is out for the season with an ACL injury he picked up last week.
The 18-year-old joined on a £26million deal in the summer and looked impressive in his early says at Anfield, but he will now have to work his way back from a major injury. Slot confirmed last week: “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."
Since then, Leoni has undergone surgery on his injury, and he has now provided an update on Instagram, writing on his story: “Surgery done. Thanks everyone for the messages. I'll be back soon," along with a red heart emoji and a pair of praying hands emoji.
Slot on Champions League defeat
Liverpool were left mightily frustrated by their defeat to Galatasaray, ultimately losing the game because of a penalty. Speaking after the scrappy affair, Slot said: “Disappointing because you play football to win a game and that’s what we didn’t do. For me it was a different loss to the one we had against [Crystal] Palace because for me there was a lot more to like, especially in the first half, which was maybe different to the Palace game.
“And in the second half, it became harder and harder for us to create. First of all, because they were fighting with all they had so you have to give credit to them and second of all because we hardly played in the second half. By ‘hardly played’ I mean the ball was hardly in play.”
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