Arsenal defender Takehiro Tomiyasu has been called up by Japan for the June international break, with his national team set to compete in a couple of World Cup qualifiers over the next week, but he was left out of their squad against Myanmar on Thursday.
When Japan announced their team for the opening qualifier of the break, Tomiyasu was noticeably absent from both the starting lineup and the bench.
There hadn’t been any sign of an injury ahead of the game, with Tomiyasu training as normal.
Japanese media noted that only Yuto Nagatomo was on a different training regime to the rest of the squad pre-game. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Nagatomo also missed out on the squad to face Myanmar.
With 26 players included in the squad for the break but only 23 permitted on each matchday, there were always going to be a few players excluded.
Along with Nagatomo and Tomiyasu, Takefusa Kubo missed out on the bench as well.
Japan boss Hajime Moriyasu has been very cautious with Tomiyasu recently, aware of the injury issues the defender has faced in the last couple of seasons.
Moriyasu opted not to call Tomiyasu up in March, despite the defender returning to fitness ahead of the break, arguing that he needed to think “player first”.
With any luck, Tomiyasu’s latest absence is just more of that same caution, and he’ll be back involved against Syria on Tuesday.