Olympic champions Kosei Inoue, Tadahiro Nomura and Makoto Takimoto will all miss next month's Kano Cup international tournament, the All Japan Judo Federation announced Wednesday.
Inoue, the 100-kg gold medalist in Sydney two years ago, is still recovering after having ankle surgery in early November while 60-kg winner Nomura injured a right elbow during training earlier this month.
Judo officials said earlier that Takimoto, the 81-kg champion in Sydney, is set to rejoin the French club where he had a brief stint in April and will miss the Jan. 11-12 meet at Nippon Budokan in Tokyo due to club commitments.