Liverpool boss Arne Slot admits Giovanni Leoni has been hit hard by his season-ending knee injury.
The summer signing suffered has an ACL injury and surgery has now ruled out the defensive youngster for the season.
Slot, ahead of their trip to Crystal Palace on Saturday, said: "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.
"There is never a positive side but you try to look at that and that is that he is still so young and he has so many years still go to after he recovers from a terrible injury."
He added: "We have some examples with Virgil (van Dijk) and Joe (Gomez) and a lot example all over the world (of players coming back better). It hurts more if you are closer to retirement but it's far from ideal.
"The surgeons and the rehab people are important but it's nice if you can do this with players around who have lived through this and they can give the right energy in the right moments. Our players have shown plenty of compassion for him and they will not stop."
Ekitike reaction
Meanwhile, Slot also discussed Hugo Ekitike, who is suspended for the Palace clash after being sent off in their Carabao Cup win against Southampton for taking off his shirt after scoring.
Slot continued: "Disciplined means a fine, which he didn't get. I spoke to him. He said sorry straight away to his team-mates, he is young and players of all ages make mistakes and you are allowed at this club to make a mistake without getting fined.
"A fantastic human being, if you asked staff top 3 or warmest and polite, he would be in there, so he can make a mistake. It wasn't smart, it didn't hurt us. It might hurt a bit more tomorrow but Chiesa is showing himself and a chance for him to play tomorrow off the bench."
On Alexander Isak scoring his first goal for Liverpool against Saints, Slot also said: "He is able to play minutes, 90 is still dependent on the pace and intensity of the game. Also for the long term, maybe a stupid hit to bring him to 90 and we brought him too far over the line, so not smart to play 90 yet. Into his pre-season now and then players go 60/70, some clubs do 90, our clubs do 60 or 70."
New Ngumoha contract
It was announced on Thursday that Rio Ngumoha, 17, has signed a new contract.
Slot said: "Good thing is if you're a youngster at LFC, there are players who in your position who are better than you so there are still steps to make.
"Maybe if you play lower, you're the best player and that leads to not being grounded but not the case here.
"First of all he wants to improve but if he plays with Mo (Salah), Cody (Gakpo), Federico (Chiesa) ... he feels there are steps to make to their level and if he is at their level then it is consistency, that is the most difficult thing. Becoming good, some can do, consistency is why the top players stand out."
Crystal Palace expectations
Switching to the game at Selhurst Park, Slot expects a battle to break down Palace's rearguard.
He explained: "They are disciplined, enormous defensively. Ten outfield players plus keeper who work so hard to prevent other team, we saw this in Community Shield. They are calm in their own half and we saw this during the week against Southampton.
"It's hard to play through and apart from that they have some inidividual players, quality. Mateta, Sarr, two midfielders who can play, two good centre-backs and wing-backs. What stands out for me is their defensive work."
The Dutchman also said: "To say I am surprisesd is too strong but after our games, if you said we'd have maximum points, I would have signed straight away! Maybe we were a bit lucky to get 100% but we work incredibly hard as well and when you work hard you get a chance to be lucky. I don't think we stole a win but some games a draw would be more fair. Looking at the schedule, I am more than pleased."
Meanwhile, Slot also talked up his confidence in Liverpool's goalscoring power - even without Ekitike. While admiring Palace's "defensive work", Liverpool's manager has total belief in his goalscorers.
"Even we find it hard to score versus Palace, 3 games we only scored one goal, one we scored twice which they did as well. So it's difficult to score again. You tell me now they keep clean sheets then we, until now, were able to score. They have improved.
"We have players who can score goals and the quality as a team to create chances for the front four players, it's because of how they play and line up with a 5-4-1, it's not easy to create, so when we do, would be smart to score as soon as we can.
"You can only score a winner if you work as hard as we do to stop them scoring too. You do see teams who get frustrated in transition but we keep working and understand we can win it late as long as it is level. We have to bring this to every game, especially against Palace who are a big threat on the counters and set-pieces."