Liverpool FC defenders Giovanni Leoni and Conor Bradley are featured in a new episode of “Player Portraits”, and there are a lot of interesting tidbits shared on the show.
Perhaps not a surprise to anyone since they’ve been in rehabilitation all this time, but Leoni and Bradley have become rehab buddies according to Leoni:
“Since his injury we’ve been together a lot, because of the rehab, so we stayed at least every day together. We have a good relationship, and we know each other more and more, day by day.”
“So I’m really happy to have a good relationship with him.”
Watch the clip to hear Leoni’s much improved English and him commenting on Bradley’s accent.
Leoni also reflected on his debut, a stellar performance that unfortunately ended in injury. He was asked if he looks back on that game in any positive manner:
“Yeah, because it was my first game at Anfield with my fans and with my teammates. I played a good game and then I had that injury. Looking back, I can say just, I’m glad to make my debut in front of my fans.”
“When I had that injury, I was with Conor [Bradley] and I said to him, this is ACL, 100%. Then the doctor came and I said the same thing to him. But yeah, because I could feel the pain and even the sound of the injury…”
“But then after that, I received a lot of messages and a lot of support from the fans. Looking back, I can just say thank you to everyone.”
“I stayed here [in Liverpool] from the first day until now, because I wanted to do the rehab here with the physios here. Was it good to build my relationships? Yeah, and for learning English was the best thing to do in that period. I decided to stay here with my teammates in Liverpool, for practice and everything.”
Bradley also spoke on the competition for minutes at right-back with Jeremie Frimpong, although this feels like it was filmed earlier before Ronald Araujo seems to have locked that spot down:
“It’s nice. Having competition is always good. It’s always healthy for any team.”
“But, I think the best thing about Jeremie is how good of a guy he is. He’s just really bubbly, really loud about the place and you need people like that in the dressing room.”
“He’s just a really good character to have and competition is important in any football club. Hopefully me and him try push each other to be the best we can for Liverpool.”
Almost there, boys. It’ll be such a lift to see these two back in action for the Reds after everything they’ve been through over the past year.