Parma star Hidetoshi Nakata has pulled out of Japan's squad for this week's international friendlies in France and England with an ankle injury, officials of the Japan Football Association said Tuesday.
Nakata was due to join his Japanese teammates at a training camp here Tuesday but a right ankle injury sustained in Parma's 0-0 draw at Lazio in the Serie A on Sunday has ruled him out of the upcoming matches against Senegal and Nigeria.
Nakata was the only absentee from a virtually full-strength squad at the camp, where Philippe Troussier's men are tuning up for the first of two friendlies against the African nations that have already qualified for next year's World Cup in Japan and South Korea.
Asian champion Japan takes on World Cup debutantes Senegal in Lens on Thursday before crossing the channel to play Troussier's former employer Nigeria in Southampton on the English south coast on Sunday.
The World Cup cohosts will be looking to erase back-to-back defeats -- a 5-0 whipping by World and European champion France in Paris and a 1-0 loss to Spain in Cordoba the following month -- in only two international matches played on the road this year.