Two cruciate ligament operations and numerous muscle injuries: the Nigerian seems anything but a ready-made solution for Allegri

Eighty-five minutes in total in Leverkusen’s five summer friendlies, zero in his first official match in the German Cup in 2025-26, one on April 20, 2025, against Sankt Pauli, in his last Bundesliga match. Victor Boniface, Milan’s new target to solve their center forward puzzle, seems anything but a ready-made solution, especially considering the emergency the Rossoneri are facing in attack after Rafa Leao’s injury and Noah Okafor’s departure. This is due to the injuries that have often plagued his career. One statistic says it all: in 2025, the Nigerian striker played 12 games for Bayer, scoring just three goals.

Milan, Boniface, and his injury history—  Yet just seven months ago, Boniface was on his way to Saudi Arabia for €70 million. Specifically, to Cristiano Ronaldo’s Al Nassr. “I was in a hotel in Frankfurt and I was already buying gifts for my family, then everything fell through,” the player himself confirmed in a recent interview. Because there is little to say about the Nigerian’s level: when he is fit, he knows his stuff. In 2023-24, in his first year in Germany, he scored 21 goals in 34 games. The problem lies in the fragility of his powerful physique (6’3″). His injury record is grim: at Bodo Glimt, his first professional team in Europe, he tore his cruciate ligament twice, first in March 2019, then in November 2020. This did not prevent him from recovering and moving to Belgium to Union St. Gilloise, where he exploded in 2022-23, also playing as a winger: 17 goals in 51 games. Leverkusen thus brought him to one of the top five leagues in Europe for the first time. And, as mentioned, he got off to a great start. Boniface scored and impressed as a center forward alongside Xabi Alonso, but… in January 2024, he suffered yet another setback: three months out with a serious adductor injury. His last injury came in November 2024, a thigh problem that not only kept him out for 12 games but also affected his performance throughout the second half of the season. In short, for Milan, betting on the Nigerian would be a gamble. Whether it pays off or not could depend entirely on luck.