Yokozuna Kakuryu has pulled out of the November 2020 basho, citing lower back pain.

That will be Kakuryu’s third tournament in a row, where he failed to compete either partly or fully. His last performance was a 12-3 jun-yusho, back in March.

Prior to that result, the Mongolian champion also failed to last fifteen days, in January 2020, November and September 2019. He won the Nagoya basho 2019, though.

Given the yokozuna’s poor form of late, missing out sumo’s final tournament of the year will undoubtedly raise fears of being compelled to hand his retirement papers.

We wish the six time grand champion a smooth recovery!