Takumi Minamino will not play for Japan at the 2026 World Cup after tearing the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee in December, an injury that ended his season and shut down the possibility of a tournament return. Japan arrived at the World Cup without one of the most experienced attackers in its squad.
Minamino was 31 and had been expected to be one of Japan's leaders at the tournament. He had spent more than a decade in international football, built a reputation for movement, technical ability and versatility across the front line, and had already appeared in multiple major tournaments for Japan.
The injury happened during a French Cup match between AS Monaco and Auxerre, a setback that cut off a career arc that had taken him from Cerezo Osaka to Red Bull Salzburg, then to Liverpool and on loan to Southampton before he joined AS Monaco. At Liverpool, he won the Premier League and domestic cups under Jürgen Klopp, form that helped make him one of Japan's most recognizable players of the past decade.
ACL injuries typically require several months of recovery, which makes a quick return unlikely even after the World Cup has moved on. What remains unresolved is whether Minamino will be fit for club football later in the season, but Japan's bigger problem is already fixed: one of its most reliable veterans is out when the team needed him most.
