{"id":22829,"date":"2026-05-15T06:45:03","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T06:45:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/22829\/"},"modified":"2026-05-15T06:45:03","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T06:45:03","slug":"mitoma-fails-to-make-japans-2026-world-cup-squad-due-to-hamstring-injury-world-cup-2026-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/22829\/","title":{"rendered":"Mitoma fails to make Japan\u2019s 2026 World Cup squad due to hamstring injury | World Cup 2026 News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Monaco forward Takumi Minamino also misses out due to injury, but ex-Arsenal defender Takehiro Tomiyasu makes the cut.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Published On 15 May 202615 May 2026<\/p>\n

Injured Brighton winger\u00a0Kaoru Mitoma has been left out of Japan\u2019s World Cup<\/a> squad in a major blow to their chances of progressing beyond the last 16 for the first time.<\/p>\n

The 28-year-old suffered a hamstring injury during Brighton\u2019s 3-0 win over Wolves in the Premier League last weekend.<\/p>\n

Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list<\/p>\n

\u201cThe medical team assessed that it would be difficult for him to get back to fitness during the tournament,\u201d coach Hajime Moriyasu said in naming his squad in Tokyo on Friday.<\/p>\n

Monaco forward Takumi Minamino also missed out after tearing the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee in late December.<\/p>\n

Japan have been drawn with the Netherlands, Sweden and Tunisia in Group F, and they start their campaign against the Dutch in Arlington, Texas on June 14.<\/p>\n

Mitoma, who has scored nine goals, is one of Japan\u2019s best players and scored the winner in their 1-0 friendly victory over England at Wembley in March.<\/p>\n

He also played a key role in his country\u2019s shock wins<\/a> over Germany and Spain at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, where Japan eventually lost on penalties to Croatia in the last 16.<\/p>\n

Ajax defender Takehiro Tomiyasu made the 26-man squad, despite not playing for the Samurai Blue for almost two years due to a series \u2060of injuries.<\/p>\n

The central defender, who currently plays for Ajax after his contract with Arsenal was annulled by mutual consent last year, last played for Japan in a World Cup qualifier against Syria on June 11, 2024. He had been included in the \u200csquad for the March international window before withdrawing.<\/p>\n

Crystal Palace\u2019s Daichi Kamada, Liverpool\u2019s Wataru Endo, Real Sociedad\u2019s Takefusa Kubo and 39-year-old FC Tokyo full-back Yuto Nagatomo were all included.<\/p>\n

Wolfsburg\u2019s Kento Shiogai, who won his first cap in Japan\u2019s 1-0 win over Scotland in Glasgow in March, also made the cut.<\/p>\n

Moriyasu will be leading the team into his second World Cup as coach.<\/p>\n

Japan are scheduled to play their final pre-World \u2060Cup friendly against Iceland on May 31. They will then \u2060travel to the team\u2019s base \u2060camp in Nashville, Tennessee, where Japan will train at the Nashville SC Training Center.<\/p>\n

Their opening game against the Netherlands will be followed by matches against \u200cTunisia \u200cin Monterrey, Mexico on June 20 and Sweden back in Arlington on June 25.<\/p>\n

Japan squad for World Cup 2026:<\/p>\n

Goalkeepers: Zion Suzuki, Keisuke Osako, Tomoki Hayakawa.<\/p>\n

Defenders: Yuto Nagatomo, Shogo Taniguchi, Ko Itakura, Tsuyoshi Watanabe, Takehiro Tomiyasu, Hiroki Ito, Ayumu Seko, Yukinari Sugawara, Junnosuke Suzuki.<\/p>\n

Midfielders: Wataru Endo, Junya Ito, Daichi Kamada, Ritsu Doan, Ao Tanaka, Kaishu Sano, Takefusa Kubo, Yuito Suzuki.<\/p>\n

Forwards: Daizen Maeda, Koki Ogawa, Ayase Ueda, Keito Nakamura, Kento Shiogai, Keisuke Goto.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Monaco forward Takumi Minamino also misses out due to injury, but ex-Arsenal defender Takehiro Tomiyasu makes the cut.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22830,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[373,8,173,33,2536,11072,5127],"class_list":{"0":"post-22829","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-japan","8":"tag-asia-pacific","9":"tag-japan","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-nihon","12":"tag-sport","13":"tag-world-cup","14":"tag-world-cup-2026"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22829","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22829"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22829\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22830"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/japan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}