Striker consults knee specialist
©IMAGO
The question of whether Victor Boniface will undergo surgery on his injured knee is still unanswered. Next week, on January 8th, the 25-year-old has an appointment to be examined by knee specialist Dr. Christian Fink in Innsbruck, as Werder Bremen announced before the start of training on Friday. The well-known summer addition was missing. It is virtually impossible that Boniface will play for the Green-Whites again until the loan contract with Bayer Leverkusen ends in six months. Werder is therefore looking for a new striker.
“We are working hard to get it through as quickly as possible,” confirmed the Bremen head of licensing, Peter Niemeyer, on Friday, according to “Kicker”. The North German management is “of course also aware” of the pressure that the unclear situation in attack brings with it due to Boniface’s failure.
Update 8:00 p.m.: Die „Deichstube“ Niemeyer quoted in more detail and coach Horst Steffen also gave his opinion. Niemeyer also said: „I don’t know whether we should call it excessive pressure, because the pressure is always there for us. And we can deal with that too. I see the situation more as an opportunity. I hope that we can find a solution as quickly as possible.“ Steffen said with regard to the options in the storm: „It would be good if we had a replacement. Nevertheless, we still have guys in the squad that we need to improve. If nothing happens, we are always able to win games with the guys we have.“
At Werder, Boniface was supposed to find his old form, but instead both he and his center forward colleague Keke Topp (21) failed across the board in their main task – scoring goals. With a market value decline from 45 million euros to currently 12 million euros, the Nigerian is the nine with the biggest loss since the beginning of 2025. In the current Werder squad, he is only the fifth most valuable professional. However, there have been no concrete rumors about a new center forward on the Weser recently. Speculation about Taiwo Awoniyi (28, Nottingham) dates back to November.
Werder Bremen “hoped for more” from Boniface’s loan
Niemeyer also commented on Boniface: “We saw it as an opportunity, but with an opportunity there is of course a certain risk. We must now state: We all hoped for more from this loan, but unfortunately it didn’t work out the way we imagined.” An operation would probably mean the end of the season. But even if a decision is made against it, it was recently said in “Bild” that he should no longer be used due to the high risk of an even more serious injury.
