Endo retires from international football after broken foot ends World Cup dream

Wataru Endo has retired from international football after being forced to withdraw from Japan’s 2026 World Cup squad, ending his hopes of facing Liverpool team-mate Virgil van Dijk on the tournament’s opening weekend.

The 33-year-old midfielder suffered a broken left foot and ruptured ligament against Sunderland in February and was unable to regain full fitness despite being named in Japan’s squad and registering 45 minutes in a friendly against Iceland. Continued pain prompted his withdrawal, with Borussia Mönchengladbach’s Shuto Machino called up as his replacement.

“Since my injury, I’ve done everything I possibly could up to this point, so I have no regrets whatsoever,” Endo said. “From here on, I’ll be cheering for the Japan national team as one of the fans.”

Liverpool confirmed the news on their official channels, writing: “Wataru Endo has withdrawn from Japan’s World Cup squad due to injury, and announced his retirement from international football. Keep your head up, Wata.”

Endo’s exit adds a bittersweet footnote to a story that had been building since Liverpool’s preseason tour of Japan last summer. During the Reds’ 3-1 victory over Yokohama F. Marinos, Van Dijk handed Endo the captain’s armband when the midfielder came on as a substitute — a gesture that resonated deeply with the home crowd. Endo had supported Yokohama as a boy and even trialled for the club as a teenager without signing.

“I think it was a great gesture,” Endo said of Van Dijk’s act. “I think all Japanese people maybe wanted me to be captain.”

At the time, Endo described the occasion as a dream realised: “I supported this club actually, and I went to trial, but I couldn’t join this club. Now I came back here as a player of Liverpool. It was a dream-come-true moment.”

The Netherlands, captained by Van Dijk, face Japan in a Group F opener this weekend — a match that would have pitted the two club team-mates against each other on the international stage.

Endo accumulated 73 caps for Japan after his debut in 2015 and first caught Liverpool’s eye at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. He joined Anfield roughly six months after that tournament and has since won both the Premier League and the Carabao Cup. With one year remaining on his contract at the club, he has become a firm favourite with supporters.