In February, Liverpool midfielder Wataru Endo underwent surgery for a broken left foot, with Japan’s captain spending most of the latter stages of the 2025-26 season sidelined and training on his own before slowly being reintegrated into team training towards the end of the campaign.
However, with the player appearing to be at least close to regaining full fitness in May and then able to join up with Japan for a pre-World Cup warm-up friendly against Iceland on May 31st where he played a half of football, there had been no real suggestions that Endo’s World Cup could be in dout.
Today, though, Japan announced that their captain was withdrawing—and that he had spent the past week back in solo training at the national team camp in Nashville after suffering a recovery setback. He will be replaced in the squad by forward Shuto Machino of Borussia Mönchengladbach.
As recently as two days ago, Endo was still seen as a key part of Japan’s 2026 World Cup hopes, with the 33-year-old midfielder speaking to reporters on Tuesday and saying, “We will do our best with pride and passion to achieve something we’ve never seen before in Japan’s soccer history.”
