Word comes this morning (Japan time) that Yokozuna Kakuryu will be absent from the kyushu basho with renewed injuries to his lower back. This comes as a surprise as he had looked solid in training and jungyo over the past several weeks.
This is the fourth consecutive tournament that Kakuryu will miss some or all of a basho, and seriously calls into question his continued viability as an active Yokozuna. Kakuryu took the championship last year at Kyushu, with a solid set of 14 wins. His fans were eager to see him defend his title, and excitement was high to have a tournament with all four Yokozuna active.
We wish Kakuryu good fortune and a speedy recovery.
Discover more from Tachiai (立合い)
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
I am astounded by this. He seemed to finally be in fighting shape and he really got my hopes up for a good basho during the Jungyo tour. Very unfortunate news, this might be it for him.
The Barber approves of this news
Well shit. Off I go to change my yokozuna pick on Jason’s youtube channel.
Poor Kakuryu :( I hope this isn’t the end for him
Oh no! How unfortunate for him! :(
Oh god, not the news I wanted to read this morning as I woke up. Has everybody been overdoing their keiko? Kisenosato exhausted, Terunofuji can’t perform a Tachiai, and now Kakuryu certain kyujo.
BTW, a correction: according to that Nikkan story, he has a lower back injury. They mention the right foot as his previous injury, not his current one.
Thanks for the correction.
Terribly sad and unexpected news. You really do have to wonder whether we’ll see him in the dohyo again. A superbly talented rikishi who just doesn’t have the fitness to show us how good he is consistently
Awful news, I was looking forward to seeing him in action again.
Wow everyone was so bullish on his health that I was going to pick him for the yusho. Bummer.
He has a fairly unique style of sumo, and his presence in the competition keeps everyone on their toes. I really worry about his viability now having sat out 5 of the last 6 basho.
He really was on the mend. His foot was absolutely fine. He was doing everything right: scaling up his practice gradually, not overdoing it, testing how much power he can apply to that ankle, etc.
And he really looked great in the bouts we saw in the Jungyo, and was absolutely certain that he would show up for the basho.
And then he gets a completely new injury out of the blue. He must be seriously bummed out. Even without the pressure from the stablemaster, the YDC and whatnot, it just means starting everything from scratch: resting, healing, starting to practice again. A real bummer.
I just hope it’s some problem that can be healed quickly, not something like a bulging disc, which requires long-term weight and body adjustments.
It’s so easy to randomly mess up your back by doing something innocuous as a normal person. I can only imagine the strain these guys put on their backs in training.
I’m really sad to see him miss this basho, the four Yokozuna promos had gotten me hyped up for a glorious battle for the yusho for Kakuryu.
Not surprised, he’s been a pretend Yokozuna for many years. Time for him to go, there’s no fight left in him.