Takehiro Tomiyasu hasn’t been called up by Japan for the latest round of internationals, with Hajime Moriyasu explaining why.
Japan announced their squad for the upcoming March internationals on Thursday morning, with Arsenal’s Takehiro Tomiyasu not named on the list.
In many ways, this is surprising news, with Tomiyasu having returned to fitness with Arsenal and playing a key role for Japan in every break for the last six months.
That includes the AFC Asian Cup, in which Tomiyasu started and played 90 minutes in both of Japan’s knockout fixtures, having made two appearances on his return to fitness in the group stage.
Japan boss Hajime has justified his decision to leave Tomiyasu out on this occasion.
“Tomi hasn’t played yet. The main reason is that he hasn’t played a match,” Moriyasu explained.
“We have confirmed that he is definitely recovering and is fit to play. In that sense, it might have been possible to call him up and have him play, but we decided first of all that he hasn’t played.
“I think we have to think ‘player first’ there. The next game will definitely be intense and tough.
“In a situation where he’s not playing there, of course we might still ask him to play, but this time we decided not to call him up because of the risk of injury and because we haven’t confirmed how much he can play.”
It’s true that Arsenal are yet to give Tomiyasu any minutes since his return to fitness. He was in the second against FC Porto, but he wasn’t called up.
The last time Tomiyasu went away on international duty, he came back with an injury setback, and Moriyasu admitted he doesn’t want the same thing to happen again.
“He was able to play in the last Asian Cup, but he had some discomfort against Iran, and then there was a history of injuries that prevented him from playing,” the manager continued.
“I didn’t call him up, firstly for his own sake and for the sake of his club, because I don’t want the same thing to happen again.
“And also because I thought that if he showed a solid performance on the Arsenal and Premier League stage, he would naturally become an asset for the national team.”
Japan play a couple of World Cup qualifiers against North Korea over the March break, before playing their final two qualifiers of the current round in June. As it stands, they’re top of their group with two wins from two games.