Giovanni Leoni’s planned Liverpool return has been pushed back by several weeks.
Leoni was expected to resume first-team training during September’s international break, over 12 months since he suffered a season-ending knee injury on his debut.
But timetable for the Italy under-19 international’s comeback is now set to extend into next month due to additional issues discovered during the initial prognosis.
Andoni Iraola confirmed ahead of his side’s trip to Brentford that the Reds will not take any risks in the latest steps of Leoni’s recovery due to his lengthy lay-off.
He said: “It is taking more time than we wanted.
“With Gio, the plan was to train with the team in this past international break.
“It is probably now going to be the next international break, so we have lost one month in the process.
“With Giovanni’s injury, I wasn’t here but talking to the medical department [it was clear] it wasn’t just an ACL.
“It was a bad injury, a lot of things around the knee were involved apart from the ACL.
“I think he has to be very confident in the rehab and the process has to be very careful with him.
“We want to make sure once he comes to the team he stays there in a good place. It’s true we’ve had a little bit of not a setback but a delay, if you want.
“The plan now is he starts in the next break. It’s not that far off, but a little bit later than we expected.”