Liverpool Recieve Fresh Jeremy Jacquet and Giovanni Leoni Fitness Update Ahead of New Season

With Liverpool already short on numbers in the defensive department, Andoni Iraola can ill afford any injuries to the players that they do still have available. So the fact that both young centre-backs Jeremy Jacquet and Giovanni Leoni were not in training may be a worry for some Liverpool fans. 

The young Italian defender made a very good first impression when making his first appearance for the club in an EFL Cup game against Southampton. Leoni had a brilliant game, and while, yes, it was against lower-level opposition to perform as well as he did in your first start for your new club, it was a standout debut. 

But in the last 10 minutes of the game, Leoni would pick up a devastating ACL injury that would put the brakes on the defender pushing on from his debut performance and meant he wouldn't play for the Reds for the rest of the season. 

The expectation amongst many was that Giovanni Leoni would return for pre-season for LFC, but he isn't as far along in his rehab as some may think.

According to Andoni Iraola, Leoni is close to a return but is not ready just yet, stating that Leoni will be the first one back out of the three long-term absentees. And today it has been confirmed by Paul Gorst that Giovanni Leoni was doing gym work as he closes in on his return to first-team training. 

Jeremy Jacquet's situation is slightly different to Leoni's, as Jacquet's injury was a shoulder injury sustained while at his former club Rennes. That shoulder injury ruled out the young French defender for the remainder of the season, with, again, like Leoni, the hope being that he would be ready for Liverpool at the start of pre-season. 

However, many Reds fans will notice that Jeremy Jacquet has yet to feature in the first two pre-season games against Sunderland and Wrexham, respectively.

However, he is closing in on a return and is likely to make an appearance and subsequently his debut for Liverpool during pre-season. 

Andoni Iraola stated after the 1-0 win vs Wrexham that Jeremy Jacquet was likely to feature in the final game of Liverpool's US pre-season tour against Leeds United on Sunday.

But today, Jacquet was not pictured in first-team training and instead was doing gym work. Now, this may just be part of Jacquet's return programme, and perhaps he wasn't scheduled to be out training with the first team today.

But with Virgil Van Dijk starting his pre-season back at the AXA Training Ground and Joe Gomez picking up an injury in LFC's first pre-season game against Sunderland, that will rule him out until after the first Premier League game of the season against Newcastle.

It is therefore understandable why fans are beginning to worry about who Andoni Iraola will be able to call upon in that first game of the season.

And perhaps this is also something that the club are equally concerned about, as today Liverpool have been linked with Fikayo Tomori as a potential addition to Iraola's defensive options. 

So whether it is the club making a signing, the likes of Jacquet and Leoni returning to the side soon, or perhaps both, something needs to be done ahead of the Reds' opening game at St James' Park in just over two weeks.