Ryuzo Morioka of Shimizu S-Pulse, Kenichi Uemura of Sanfrecce Hiroshima, Naoki Matsuda of the Yokohama F. Marinos, Toshihiro Hattori and Makoto Tanaka of Juiblo Iwata, Atsuhiro Miura of Tokyo Verdy 1969 . . . are just some of the national team players who are suffering an injury or illness at the moment, and who have been forced to sit out of their own team's activities and this week's Japan training camp in Shimizu, Shizuoka Prefecture.
Daisuke Ichikawa and Alessandro "Alex" Santos of Shimizu, Kashima Antlers' Atsushi Yanagisawa and Jubilo's Naohiro Takahara are, however, expected to attend even though they have not yet fully recovered from their injuries.
Yanagisawa, Alex and Ichikawa played in Saturday's Xerox Super Cup and seemed to be approaching full fitness, though a Shimizu press officer said Ichikawa was still complaining about the pain in his damaged ankle before going into the game.