Wataru Endo will be absent from the World Cup. Coach Moriyasu: ``It's difficult to recover to 100%.'' New captain Itakura: ``We'll win with this lineup.''

On the 14th, the Japan Football Association (JFA) released on its official YouTube channel the meeting of the Japanese national team for the World Cup North and Central American tri-nation tournament. In the scene where it was announced that Wataru Endo (Liverpool) would be leaving the team due to injury, the players' expressions were shown as solemn.

Coach Hajime Moriyasu, who reported Endo's withdrawal from the tournament, explained that although he had been working hard on surgery and rehabilitation after his injury in February of this year with the aim of making a comeback during the World Cup, ``It is difficult to recover 100%, including the first game and the entire World Cup.''

The new captain, Akira Itakura (Ajax), said, ``From now on, we just have to do what we do with this team. Let's take responsibility and fight to win the championship,'' while holding back his emotions.

Endo injured his left ankle area in February. He withdrew after only the first half of the send-off match against Iceland at the end of May, and once again complained of discomfort in his ankle, and after that he continued to make adjustments on a different menu. [Naoya Tsunoda]