Japan's Mitoma misses World Cup after injury for Brighton

Brighton’s Kaoru Mitoma has been left out of Japan’s World Cup squad due to injury. Mitoma picked up a hamstring problem against Wolves last weekend, with manager Fabian Hürzeler offering an uncertain diagnosis this week. The winger was absent from Hajime Moriyasu’s 26-man squad on Friday, but there were calls for four British-based players.

Liverpool’s Wataru Endo, Crystal Palace’s Daichi Kamada, Leeds’ Ao Tanaka and Celtic’s Daizen Maeda are all included along with six Bundesliga players. There are only three players based in Japan. The Blue Samurai face the Netherlands, Tunisia and Sweden in North America from June 14.

Squad: Goalkeepers: Hayakawa (Kashima Antlers), Osako (Sanfrecce Hiroshima) Suzuki (Parma) Defenders: Nagatomo (FC Tokyo), Taniguchi (Sint-Truidense), Itakura (Ajax), Watanabe (Feyenoord), Tomiyasu (Ajax), Ito (Bayern Munich) Seko (Le Havre), Sugawara (Werder Bremen), Suzuki (Copenhagen) Midfield/forwards: Endo (Liverpool), Ito (Genk), Kamada (Crystal Palace), Ogawa (Nijmegen), Maeda (Celtic), Doan (Eintracht Frankfurt), Ueda (Feyenoord), Tanaka (Leeds), Nakamura (Stade de Reims), Sano (Mainz), Kubo (Real Sociedad), Suzuki (Freiburg), Shiogai (Wolfsburg), Goto (Sint-Truidense)