Liverpool defender Giovanni Leoni faces around a year on the sidelines after suffering an anterior cruciate ligament tear in Tuesday's 2-1 League Cup win over Southampton, the Premier League club's manager Arne Slot said on Friday.

The 18-year-old Italian, signed from Parma in a deal worth 26 million pounds ($34.74 million) according to British media reports, landed awkwardly in the 81st minute after a challenge and was taken off the pitch on a stretcher.

"He is not in a good place because he tore his ACL which means he will be out around 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 positives," Slot told reporters.

"There is never a positive side but you try to look at that and that is that he is still so young and

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