Victor Boniface has indeed become Leverkusen's mainstay striker this season and if he is absent from defending his country at the AFCON event it will clearly reduce Leverkusen's goal productivity slightly. But I don't think that has much of an impact because Leverkusen still has several players who can do the same job as Victor Boniface, for example Florian Wirtz, Jeremie Frimpong and Alex Grimaldo, even though they are not strikers, they can do similar tasks.
Now maintaining a place at the top will be much more difficult because Bayern Munich has not given up at all and they continue to make progress that makes the team better. They have also made player transfers this January to strengthen their squad. Harry Kane is also still very productive so Bayern Munich has no weaknesses in being able to win every match and maybe when they face Leverkusen again it will be a determinant of who will lead the standings. Even if Leverkusen loses and if the result is a draw then Leverkusen will still be completely dominated.
Well Leverkusen will be facing the effect from Victor’s absence. This is one major reason why they’re not happy with the time AFCON is coming upon us. But with Victor’s absence, I think they’ve still got some quality who can replace and stand up for him when gears around. This is where Xabi will have to show his prowess and try rotation to help keep this squad stable and get the wins.
But Bayern Munich are not going off the chase anytime soon and instead they’ll be making some nice additions to strengthen the squad this January. Well Xabi will have to be on top of his game and carry his team through till they get the league title, well whether the get the league title or not, they've really tried to get this far, atleast he's shown the board what he's made of and that with the right backing winning the league is not very impossible.