{"id":289099,"date":"2025-11-17T15:14:16","date_gmt":"2025-11-17T15:14:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/289099\/"},"modified":"2025-11-17T15:14:16","modified_gmt":"2025-11-17T15:14:16","slug":"free-agent-tomiyasu-can-still-play-at-world-cup-says-japan-coach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/289099\/","title":{"rendered":"Free agent Tomiyasu can still play at World Cup, says Japan coach"},"content":{"rendered":"

Takehiro Tomiyasu \u00a9 Gallo Images<\/p>\n

Defender Takehiro Tomiyasu can still make Japan’s World Cup squad despite being without a club since leaving Arsenal in July, coach Hajime Moriyasu said on Monday.<\/p>\n

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Tomiyasu has barely played for the past two years because of injuries and he agreed to part ways with the Gunners with a year left on his contract in order to focus on his rehabilitation.<\/p>\n

The 27-year-old is still a free agent with just over half a year to go until the World Cup but Moriyasu wants him to be part of Japan’s squad in the United States, Canada and Mexico.<\/p>\n

“To answer simply, I think he can make it,” Moriyasu said ahead of Tuesday’s friendly against Bolivia in Tokyo.<\/p>\n

“If he is in good shape, he will be a candidate to help Japan challenge to win the World Cup in North America.”<\/p>\n

Tomiyasu joined Arsenal from Bologna in August 2021 and made 84 appearances in all competitions during his time in London.<\/p>\n

But he played for the club just once in the 2024-25 season because of injuries and is currently working on returning to full fitness.<\/p>\n

Tomiyasu has 42 caps for Japan and played at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar but he has not appeared for his country since June last year.<\/p>\n

“We are in constant contact to check on his recovery,” said Moriyasu.<\/p>\n

“I don’t know what level he will be able to reach but if I am able to see that he is playing and performing well, I want him to be a part of the squad.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Takehiro Tomiyasu \u00a9 Gallo Images Defender Takehiro Tomiyasu can still make Japan’s World Cup squad despite being without…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":289100,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,561,82],"class_list":["post-289099","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289099","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=289099"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289099\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/289100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=289099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=289099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=289099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}