His brief comeback in the Europa League against Celje was immediately followed by a setback. Eliesse Ben Seghir was not included in Leverkusen’s squad for the match against Leipzig due to muscle problems. The all-clear has now been given for the Moroccan international, who, however, urgently needs to catch up with his direct rivals.
Things just aren’t going to plan for Eliesse Ben Seghir. After a completely disastrous first season at Leverkusen, the current campaign has so far proved extremely disheartening for the Moroccan international. The skilful dribbler had to come to terms with yet another setback straight after his comeback as a substitute on Thursday in the 2–0 Europa League win against NK Celje. As a result, Ben Seghir was once again absent from Leverkusen’s matchday squad for Bayer’s 2–0 win against RB Leipzig on Sunday.
This is the second time this season that Ben Seghir has been sidelined due to a muscle injury
The 21-year-old, who joined the club from AS Monaco in the summer of 2025 for a transfer fee of 32 million euros, had to sit out the match against Leipzig due to problems with his hamstring, as reported by the Moroccan website mountakhab.net. Although this is said to have been merely a precautionary measure and the forward has not suffered any structural injury, the setback has once again hampered the left-winger’s efforts to finally get back to full fitness and establish himself at Leverkusen.
Admittedly, the all-clear was given on Monday, as Ben Seghir was at least able to train individually and is due to rejoin team training later this week. However, every missed match hurts the diminutive dribbler. After all, Ben Seghir had already suffered a thigh injury immediately before Bayer 04’s first pre-season friendly, which caused him to miss the entire pre-season. At the time, the club stated that Ben Seghir would be out for around four weeks – in the end, he was sidelined for almost two months. This makes it all the more important for the player to use the three-week international break – during which Bayer 04 is considering arranging a friendly – to catch up on his missed training.
Ben Seghir’s lack of match practice was evident against Celje
This is desperately needed for the attacking player. After more than a year without regular match practice, he clearly needs to work on the shortcomings he has accumulated due to a lack of match rhythm. As his eleven-minute cameo against NK Celje demonstrated – during which the skilful player looked out of sorts, made a hair-raising misplaced pass, but at least delivered a good cross – the natural ease that this ball-handler is known for is, unsurprisingly, currently lacking.
As a result, alongside first-team regulars such as Ibrahim Maza, Moussa Diaby and Afonso Moreira, players who, like Martin Terrier, were already in the starting line-up against Celje are also leapfrogging Ben Seghir. And Nathan Tella, who is due to return to team training on Tuesday, is also back in contention.
Ben Seghir’s rivals are currently well ahead of him
Ben Seghir must therefore continue to fight his way back to finally make his record at Bayer 04 at least somewhat more respectable. The right-footed player has so far failed to come anywhere near meeting expectations, partly due to injury problems, and has made only ten appearances in the Bundesliga, of which just two were in the starting line-up and not a single one lasted the full 90 minutes. Moreover, the forward has not even been involved in a single goal. Given that his direct rivals are, in some cases, well ahead of him, the question now is when Ben Seghir will get his next chance to improve his record.