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Nigeria striker Victor Boniface will miss the Africa Cup of Nations and undergo surgery on an adductor muscle injury he picked up while preparing for the tournament, his club, Bayer Leverkusen, said on Tuesday.
The Bundesliga club announced that the injury will keep the striker out of action for at least three months after he missed Nigeria’s final warm-up friendly against Guinea on Monday.
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“Victor Boniface is excluded from the upcoming Africa Cup of Nations and is also unavailable to the club,” Leverkusen said in a statement.
Boniface suffered a right adductor tendon injury during training camp in Dubai. This is the result of today’s ultrasound in Cologne. Boniface will undergo surgery in the coming days. The striker is expected to return to the team in early April. “
The Bundesliga will resume on Friday after the international break.
“Good luck guys. I wish you all @ng_supereagles,” Boniface wrote on his Instagram account.
He is the top scorer for Bundesliga leaders Leverkusen with 10 goals in 16 league games this season.
Boniface made his debut in October and has since won four more international caps.
His injury follows the recent withdrawal of Nigerian midfielder Wilfred Ndidi, who was injured in Leicester City’s 2-0 win over Cardiff City on December 29.
Ndidi’s Leicester teammate Kelechi Iheanacho is also struggling with injury and the striker was still being assessed at Nigeria’s training camp with the expectation that he will be fit for the tournament, which starts on Saturday and ends on Feb. 11.
Nigeria open their Nations Cup campaign on Sunday with a Group A match against Equatorial Guinea before facing hosts Ivory Coast and Guinea-Bissau.