Nigeria international Victor Boniface has, so far this preseason, been reduced to substitute appearances for Bayer Leverkusen.
It was thought, at one time, that new Werkself boss Erik ten Hag deemed the 24-year-old surplus to requirements at the BayArena, favouring Czech striker Patrik Schick instead upfront. However, the club have made a u-turn, and are no longer actively seeking transfer bids for the former Union Saint-Gilloise marksman, who has been extensively linked to AC Milan this window.
In spite of this, however, minutes have been hard to come by for Boniface so far, as even in preseason he has almost exclusively started matches on the bench.
Leverkusen’s intriguing explanation for Victor Boniface bench spell
Addressing this situation, Bayer Leverkusen sporting director Simon Rolfes spoke to Bild, as reported by BuliNews.
The former Germany international clarified that while Boniface is injury-free and remains in the club’s plans, he is being benched for his own good.
“‘Boni’ hasn’t played that much simply because of a reaction to the physical load,” Rolfes said, “so we are handling things cautiously.”
Boniface already carrying a significant amount of load while only in preseason is strange, but might be connected to the striker’s decision during the summer to enroll in the famous Marbella Football Centre. This was done in a bid to win over Ten Hag, but it now seems that, if anything, the striker may have overtrained himself already.
