{"id":488802,"date":"2026-06-12T06:18:25","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T06:18:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/488802\/"},"modified":"2026-06-12T06:18:25","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T06:18:25","slug":"japans-wataru-endo-retires-after-injury-ends-world-cup-2026-dream-world-cup-2026-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/488802\/","title":{"rendered":"Japan\u2019s Wataru Endo retires after injury ends World Cup 2026 dream | World Cup 2026 News"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"World<\/a><\/p>\n

Midfielder and captain quits after failing to recover from foot injury ahead of Japan\u2019s game against the Netherlands.<\/p>\n

Published On 12 Jun 202612 Jun 2026<\/p>\n

Japan\u2019s captain Wataru Endo has been ruled out of the World Cup with injury and has announced his international retirement, three days before his team\u2019s tournament opener against the Netherlands.<\/p>\n

The Liverpool midfielder pulled out of the tournament after failing to recover from a foot injury, and was replaced in Japan\u2019s squad by Borussia Monchengladbach\u2019s Shuto Machino on Thursday.<\/p>\n

The 33-year-old Endo said on social media that he was \u201cfrustrated\u201d at not being able to play but backed his team to impress in Group F, where they face the Dutch, Tunisia and Sweden.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere will definitely come a time in the future when Japan win the World Cup, so let\u2019s believe in that and support the team,\u201d he wrote on X.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s bring the strength of Japan together so that that moment can happen at this tournament in North America.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cI have decided to retire from the national team. From now on, I will be supporting Japan as just another fan.\u201d<\/p>\n

Endo suffered a season-ending foot injury playing for Liverpool against Sunderland in February but returned for Japan in a 1-0 friendly win over Iceland in Tokyo on May 31.<\/p>\n

He came off at half-time and continued to feel discomfort at the team\u2019s pre-World Cup camp in Mexico, where he was not involved in any full training sessions.<\/p>\n

He took part in training when Japan moved to their World Cup base in Nashville on Monday, but was not able to get up to speed in time for the tournament.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve done everything in my power since I sustained the injury, so I have no regrets,\u201d said Endo.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course, I\u2019m frustrated that I can\u2019t play at this World Cup.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut more than that, I\u2019m proud that I\u2019ve been able to captain this team since the Qatar World Cup and help it grow into a group where it feels natural to say our target is to win the World Cup.\u201d<\/p>\n

Endo made his Japan debut in 2015 and retires with 73 caps, having scored four goals for his country.<\/p>\n

He was a member of Japan\u2019s squads for the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, and played in their stunning wins over Germany and Spain in Qatar.<\/p>\n

\"INTERACTIVE-Football[Al Jazeera]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Midfielder and captain quits after failing to recover from foot injury ahead of Japan\u2019s game against the Netherlands.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":488803,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[1631,4118,85,46,1437,43,2224,105,101640],"class_list":["post-488802","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-asia-pacific","tag-football","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-japan","tag-news","tag-sport","tag-sports","tag-world-cup-2026"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488802","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=488802"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488802\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/488803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=488802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=488802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=488802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}