Ola Aina to Return to Topflight Football this Saturday at Aston Villa

 *Knee Injury may retire Victor Boniface from football

Duro Ikhazuagbe 

Injured Nigerian international defender, Ola Aina, may return from his almost five-month absence from topflight Football this weekend.

The hamstring injury prevented Nottingham Forest to register Ola Aina for both the English Premier League as well as the Europa League.

But news out of England confirmed yesterday that  Ola Aina may return to action this weekend as Nottingham Forest play away to Aston Villa on Saturday. Despite returning to training some weeks ago, Nottingham Forest refused to rush Ola Aina back to action, preferring instead to keep training with their youth team.

Aina has featured twice for the club’s B team, playing a combined 153 minutes against Wolves U21s and Millwall U21s as he geared up preparations for an eventual first-team return.

With the January registration window now open, Sean Dyche has confirmed that Aina is in contention for Saturday’s trip toVilla Park.

“Ola comes back into the group now, which is good,” Dyche confirmed yesterday.

“He’s in contention, he’s back in the group. He’s got a lot of miles on the clock, obviously, because he couldn’t come back into the squad (before January)

anyway.

“His injury’s fine, he feels fine, so certainly he’s back into the group, anyway.”

Elsewhere in Germany, Victor Boniface is on the edge of hanging his boots finally.

Sources in Germany has confirmed that Boniface has reached the end of his career.

It was learnt that Werder Bremen and Bayer Leverkusen have agreed that Victor Boniface will need to undergo another knee surgery. 

“The Nigerian striker has irreparable damage in his knee, putting his career in serious danger,” observed the source in Germany.

This current development reinforces why AC Milan pulled out of signing Boniface last summer after the deal was about to be consummated.

Medical in Milan revealed that Boniface’s right knee was in bad shape.

The 24-year-old joined Leverkusen from Belgian side Union Saint-Gilloise in 2023 and was instrumental in his debut campaign at the BayArena, scoring 21 goals in 34 appearances as the German side lifted their first-ever Bundesliga title, won the DFB-Pokal, and finished as Europa League runners-up. 

However, the two ACL injuries he suffered, first in the 2018-19 season and then in the 2020-21 season, continue to be an issue for the striker. 

He missed 14 games last season due to multiple fitness problems. Following his failed medical, Boniface returned to Germany. 

The Super Eagles striker  opened up on his battles with injuries and explained why his move to Milan ultimately collapsed.

Speaking on a live stream, Boniface said: “The transfer didn’t work out because of my past injuries. I had two injuries to my right knee, and the problem has persisted for a long time. At one point, I had given up. While others were playing football, I was working just to get back to playing. After my second anterior cruciate ligament injury, I didn’t even want to play anymore because of the pain from the first one and what I had gone through during the second one. I also lost my mother during that time.”