Sumo fan favorite, Endo, withdrew from the Nagoya tournament with injury to his ankle, and during the summer break sought medical treatment. It is not yet know if the laparoscopic surgery on his left ankle resolved the issues that have been plaguing him, but in a recent article in Nikkan Sports, Endo states that he is not sure he will be in condition to participate in the upcoming Aki basho.
Per the report, he is not currently engaging in any real training or practice matches, and on his chances of competing in the fall tournament, “I do not know yet”.
Given his vigorous demotion in the recent banzuke (Maegashira 3 to Maegashira 14), missing Aki would likely place him in Juryo for the November tournament in Kyushu. While it would be a blow to his pride, a revitalized Endo would likely have little trouble returning quickly to the upper division. Endo has battled back from Juryo once before in early 2016, after a string of injuries has left a once rising star struggling to maintain his sumo.
Tachiai wishes Endo good health and a speedy recovery.
Note that the article also mentions that Ura is in about the same predicament, and said he is not doing keiko yet.
But I’ll take all the Japanese media with a grain of salt (or the whole dohyo-side basket). Again, what we get are mostly noncommittal responses from the rikishi. Is torikumi day on the 8th? I guess by then we’ll know for sure. I have a feeling we’ll have a rather thin makuuchi.
Which reminds me: I didn’t really pay attention to this before. Is there any official mobility between Juryo and Makuuchi in case of lots of kyujo in Makuuchi?
So I am taking the Ura news with an even larger basket of salt, and was not going to publish until I could find more / better / corroborating news. Personally I think Ura is being encouraged to sit out given his rank.
I also think that we are going to see very thin Makuuchi at Aki. I wonder if there will be some kind of reflection by the NSK on the health of their athletes if that does come to pass.
I was looking for a corroboration for Ura, but instead ran into Terunofuji. He started san-ban with his heya’s sekitori. Not the Yokozuna, of course. And he actually makes an unambiguous statement: He’s going to participate in Aki, he will take the Yusho.
Well, to do that he needs to get a better record than 7W/15L against Takarafuji and Homarefuji.
Ha! We should get you writing for the blog. You are publishing all of the stuff I have stacked up to go onto the front page over the next day or so. Don’t feel bad, it’s good stuff all around, and you bring in a lot of great tips and leads to information. So thank you!
Ahahaha… sorry about that. I didn’t know you were spreading the info over several days. I’ll try to be good and just tip you off on tweeter. :-)
No, please feel free to post stuff here – that way readers can dig into stuff themselves if they want to. What you bring to Tachiai is hugely valuable, so please do continue if you would like.
OK then. :-)
Apparently I underestimated Hakuho’s knee problems. Both Nikkei and Nikkan sports report that he is going to be absent from the YDC’s Soken, and reports his knee as “dame”.
Seriously, only one Yokozuna will attend the YDC’s event? (Kisenosato will “decide on September 1st in the morning”, but I’m 85% sure the decision will be “no go”).
I still believe that Hakuho will not miss Aki. Then again, he might want to be extra cautious to preserve his body until 2020. So, 70%?
Yeah, so I had been looking at that same line of information. I am curious if Hakuho is sandbagging or if he is really nursing an injury.
There are a LOT of folks banged up this basho, and I wonder if we are on the cusp of the much anticipated retirement wave. The NSK is going to be struggling for headliners, I predict.
Hmm. I went and looked for Hakuho’s last torikumi from the Jungyo, namely, the KITTE basho final bout (the link includes all four sanyaku bouts). Harumafuji beat him in both Odaiba and Odawara, but he did put up a nice fight in those two. But here in KITTE it’s way too quick. Those two usually get at least into a mawashi grip.
He could actually have some problem. I don’t suppose he has any reason to sandbag on this occasion.