J1 League Injury and Suspension Update (Patreon)

I have updated the injury and suspension report..

It can be found here

Some of the main updates are below:

Kawasaki Frontales Jesiel went off with a knee/muscle injury over the weekend. He hasnt been seen in training yet and im waiting to get an update. On a positive note, he was able to walk off so fingers crossed it not too serious. Yamamura is back from suspension at the weekend and most likely to replace him if needed.

Kobayahii is in full training and targeting the weekends game for a return. I think he will be on the bench to begin with.

Damiao is also in training though uncertain when he will be match fit. It was a significant injury and he has had no preseason so Kawasaki may well be patient with him

Harakawa and Nishio both werent in the squad over the weekend for Cerezo. Nishio has been seen in training so no injury for him. Look to the league cup match for more hints.

KJH returned for Cerezo and though wasnt able to stop the defeat, will be their number 1 for the foreseeable.

Sugeno hasnt been seen in training yet and for the time being Sung Yun will continue in nets. Fans are not happy with his performance, especially his pass work so it looks like Sugeno is number 1 when fit.

Ideguchi went off with an injury which was sad to see on his first start for Fukuoka. It didnt look too bad but they well be cautious with him.

Shoji wasnt fit enough to start for Antlers. The manager has said he will play him in the league cup.

Kikuchi went off with a nasty looking knee injury in Kobes game against Gamba. No news on the extent of it however he certainly wasnt in training. I see him being out for extended period looking at the way he went down/his injury past. Thuler has been seen though again unknown if full or partial training. Honda could see some more game time in the meantime.

Nagato was given a harsh (for me anyway) red card in Yokohama FMs game versus Hiroshima. He will be suspended for 1 game only. I expect Tsunoda to play LB with Eduardo at LCB. There are a couple of options available for YFM so I will wait for the press conference closer to the weekend games.

Obi was surprisingly missing from the squad for YFM. He has played well in the previous league games, however there are whispers he wasnt injured/unwell and this was a tactical choice by Muscat. Its unclear if it was a one off but based on Muscats comments and despite a pretty poor performance, my feeling is Ichimori just about will be given more game time. One im monitoring closely!

Koike has resumed training and is on course to return later this month.

League Cup

There is no Friday night game and all games will be over the weekend. Instead we have the first group stage games of the league cup tomorrow:

The Hiroshima vs Yokohama FC game is being streamed live on Youtube International

It is expected that most teams will rotate heavily and use squad and youth players. I will be keeping an eye out on how teams tackle the games and im looking forward to seeing some young guys get a run out eg Hiroshima Ryo Tanada!