Takuma Asano will not travel to Rio with the Japanese Olympic team prompting speculation that he will be swinging past Arsenal to get a few snaps of him in an Arsenal kit first on his way to Brazil.
Asano has already played his final game for Sanfrecce Hiroshima but a report on the Japanese site, JFA, claims he will meet up with the national side at a later date due to his ‘club schedule’.
The 21-year-old had been expected to be sent out on loan but that isn’t as foregone a conclusion as it seemed a few weeks ago. His work permit will have to be sorted, of course, and there’s no guarantee that he will be granted a ‘special talent’ visa by the Home Office.
If he isn’t, the club will have no option but to send him on loan and hope that, in a post-Brexit England, a Spanish passport will get him into the UK to work.