Sport Afrika-Cup
Injury shock for Leverkusen – top striker is out
As of: 5:56 p.m. | Reading time: 3 minutes
The journey to the Africa Cup ended abruptly: Victor Boniface
Those: dpa/Federico Gambarini
A bitter setback for Bayer Leverkusen: the league leaders will be missing their best Bundesliga goalscorer for a long time. Victor Boniface was injured while preparing for the African Cup with his national team.
Bundesliga leaders Bayer Leverkusen will have to do without their top striker Victor Boniface for a long time. The 23-year-old suffered a muscle tendon injury in the right adductor area during the Nigerian national football team’s preparation for the Africa Cup of Nations in Ivory Coast. This was the result of an MRI examination on Tuesday in Cologne.
Bayer 04 announced that Boniface will undergo surgery in the coming days. He is expected to return to the Rhinelander squad at the beginning of April.
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The injury hits coach Xabi Alonso’s team hard. Boniface is Leverkusen’s top scorer of the Bundesliga season so far with ten goals. The striker himself had previously wished his national team good luck via Instagram for the Africa Cup of Nations, which will be held from January 13th to February 11th.
Leverkusen had previously announced that day that the club had extended the contract with young talent Artem Stepanov. The 16-year-old center forward’s new contract is valid until June 30, 2027.
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Stepanow has scored nine goals in 16 games in the U17 Bundesliga West so far this season. He moved to Bayer 04 in the summer from the youth ranks of top Ukrainian club Shakhtar Donetsk.
20 professionals from German clubs in action at the Africa Cup
A total of 20 professionals from German clubs are in action at the upcoming Africa Cup of Nations and will therefore be missing from their clubs in the coming weeks. Bundesliga leaders Bayer Leverkusen have the most footballers with a total of four. They are followed by Eintracht Frankfurt, who have to do without three professionals, as well as Borussia Dortmund, VfB Stuttgart and RB Leipzig, who each have two of their players available for the tournament.
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Leverkusen are still missing Edmond Tapsoba (Burkina Faso), Odilon Kossounou (Ivory Coast) and Amine Adli (Morocco). Frankfurt is missing Fares Chaibi (Algeria), Omar Marmoush (Egypt) and Ellyes Skhiri (Tunisia), BVB is missing Ramy Bensebaini (Algeria) and Sebastien Haller (Ivory Coast). Stuttgart will also have to do without their top attacker Serhou Guirassy (Guinea) and Silas (Congo). Ilaix Moriba (Guinea) and Amadou Haidara (Mali) were nominated by RB Leipzig.
Champions FC Bayern are missing Moroccan Noussair Mazraoui, who was nominated despite a calf injury. Guinea has the most professionals from German clubs in its squad, having nominated Naby Keita from Werder Bremen alongside Guirassy and Moriba. There are also three Bundesliga professionals in the Tunisia squad. In addition to Skhiri, Aissa Laidouni from 1. FC Union Berlin and Oussama Haddadi from Fürth are also there.
Parallel to the Africa Cup, the Asia Cup will also take place in Qatar from January 12th to February 10th. A total of twelve professionals from German clubs are in action there, including South Korean defender Minjae Kim from FC Bayern Munich.
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